Persona 4: The New Guy
by Mad-Dog170
Summary: Someone new has come to Inaba from America and is expecting a dull and boring experience in this old town. But when he gets tied up in a murder case he will find out that he hardly knows himself. Maybe some new fiends, a chance to save peoples lives, and someone to love are just the things that will make him a better man. First story. OCxMarie. Some cussing.
1. Chapter 1: Welcome to Inaba

Chapter 1: Welcome to Inaba

**I do not own Persona all rights go to Shin Megami Tensei and Atlus.**

**I only own** **my OC.**

**This is my first story so it may suck at first but just bear with me and some feedback would be greatly appreciated and I'll only be able to update so often so be patient for new chapters.**

**OC Description:Name-Michael Williams**

**Age: 16**

**Appearence: Dark brown hair, light brown eyes, around 6 ft tall, muscular(but not to muscular) body, red T-shirt, blue jeans, white running shoes, minor scars on his chest.**

**Likes: Running, guitar, video games, just hanging out with his friends, etc.**

**Dislikes: People who disrespect others(especially women)**

**Best desctiption I can come up with.**

**Now sit back and enjoy the show!**

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As I arrive at my stop, a place called Yasoinaba Station, I look around and think to myself 'Man this town is dull as hell, I'm gonna be bored out of my mind here.' The streets are, empty many stores are closed, and there's hardly anyone out. "Well as long as I'm here i might as well make the most of it." I walk along the empty streets looking at the the slip of paper with my new address in my hand and look around for a place called the Amagi Inn. Seeing as I have no clue where I'm looking I accidentaly bump into someone. A girl who's probably a year younger than me. She has on a blue hat with a pin with a V on it, a white top with a black tie, a red skirt that stops just above her knees, black and white stripped socks, and a pair of black boots. She has black hair and the most beautiful eyes I've ever seen on any girl. I just sit on my ass in awe thinking to myself 'This girl is absolutely beautiful.' I was about to ask if she was alright when someone comes my way. A boy also around my age with silver hair, a white T-shirt, brown pants, and black shoes. "Marie are you okay?!" He says to the girl i just bumped into. 'Marie. That's a nice name. Wait this is probably her boyfriend or something. Damn! I always fall for the girl in a relationship!' Marie stood back up with a grunt and said to the boy "Yeah I'm fine Yu. This guy just came out of nowhere and ran into me." The boy looks in my direction seeing me rub my head in embarresment. He walks over to me and says "You okay pal?" I also respond with a grunt "Yeah I'm alright. Hey Marie was it? Sorry I ran into ya I wasn't looking where I was going." She accepted my apology with a nod. 'Hey maybe they can help me find the place I'm supposed to be staying at.' I look back at the boy and ask him where i can find the Amagi Inn. "Oh you're staying thereI was wondering why I've never seen you before in this small town."

"Yeah I just moved he from America and I'm gonna be staying there. At least until i can get my own place to live." I say

"Well why don't you follow me I can introduce you to my freinds and we can welcome you to town. Plus one of them's the managers daughterof the Amagi Inn so she can take you there when you leave." He says back to me.

I nodded my head and told him to lead the way. First he took Marie back home, which was conveniently just around the corner. 'He seems like a nice guy at least.' I think as I wait for him to return. He came back and took me to what I'm assuming was some kind of superstore. The place was called Junes. When I first tried to pronounce the name I said it like it was the month, June. Yu laughed at me and taught me how to properly say it. We soon ended up in a food court where i saw three others. A boy with brown hair, a white T-shirt, and red pants. A girl with short brown hair a green tank top, and blue shorts. Finally there was a girl with long black hair wearing a black top and a white skirt. Yu and I walked over and the boy with brown hair said to him "Hey there Yu who's this guy?" I walk a step forward and introduce myself "Hey I'm Michael Williams. I just moved here from America. Nice to meet you guys." They all smile and say "Welcome to Inaba Michael." Yu and I take our seats. We all start talking about random gossip we hear. Eventually Yu looks in my direction and asks "Hey Mike have you heard of something called the Midnight Channel?" I look back at him with a confused look on my face."No can't say that I have, what is it?" He looks at the others and they all nod in unison. Yu looks back at me and says "There have been some strange murders happening around Inaba lately and we seem to think that people who appear on the Midnight Channel end up dead." I went from a confused look to a 'what the hell are you talking about' look. They all tell me about how Yu, Youske(the boy with brown hair), Chie( the girl with short brown hair), and Yukiko(the girl with ong black hair) have been investigating this case and said how Yukiko had been kidnapped. I my confused face back and say "Well if what you guys say is true i better start sleeping with one eye open." Yu then says to me "You probably have nothing to worry about but be careful okay?" I nod back and realize that it's almost ten thirty. "Oh shit i still have to get to the Inn! Yukiko how do i get to your family's inn?" She tells me to take the bus and get off at the first stop. I say goodbye to everyone and start walking. As i approach the exit i think i could go run. Once the doors oped I was off in a flash. As I approach the street where I met Yu and Marie I hear someone shout "WAIT!" I was so shocked i tripped and fell on my face.

The man who told me to wait and approached me asking me with, a mic in his hand "Are you a runner young man?" I realize he's a reporter and say into the mic "Yeah I am I thought i could use a good workout." He asks me my name and where I'm from. "My name's Michael Williams and I just moved here from America." I had somehow gotten pulled into an interview so i just answered whatever questions he had for me. Eventually he finally left me alone and I made it to the inn. I finish unpacking and see that it's almost midnight. 'That damn reporter wasted an hour of my time with that damn interview' *sigh* "Oh well." I then remembered Yu and the others saying how the Midnight Channel works. 'Might as well give it a look.' I think as I look at my own reflection in the TV. Soon there was someone on the screen. I only had a few moments to get a good look. when it turned off I thought 'Was that me?' I just dispersed the thought of it as just me being tired. I went to bed and think to myself 'I'll see if it's true or not i guess.'

To be continued...

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**Slow start I know but next chapter we find out what Michael has to hide and he gets his Persona and I'm not tellin what it is until then. Even though it'll probably be today I post that chapter. Feel free to review and give me some feedback and I'll do what i can to make the story better for you guys.**

**Next time: Persona.**


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2: Persona

**I don't own Persona all rights go to Shin Megami Tensei and Atlus.**

**So yeah I decided to get the next chapter done today cause I just felt like there needed to be some action at last cause that what humans crave.**

**On with the show!**

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When I went to sleep I was in my room at the Amagi Inn. But when I woke up, I was in hell. I woke up to the sound of moaning and eyes widened in horror as I realized where I was. A hospital. The smell of death reaked in the room I was in. But i could barley see anything because there was so much fog. 'What the hell am I doing here?! Where the hell am I and why the hell am I here?!' I look around and all i see is fog. "I have to get out of here." I started walking but then a heard someone laughing **"hahahahaha what's wrong a tough guy like you is scared of a hospital?" **I look around until i saw someone hidden in the fog. He was standing on top of a large platform and he jumped down to my level. I found myself staring at my own face. **"What's wrong you act like you've never seen yourself before." **The guy with my face said as i just stare in both shock and horror. "Who are you?" I finally manage to say. **"Why I'm you. I'm your shadow."**

"My shadow? What the hell does that mean." I ask.

**"It means I know you better than you know yourself." **My "shadow" said

"What are you talking about no one knows me better than me." I say in a scared tone. He looks at me and laughs hystarically. **"HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA. I think you mean no one knows you PERIOD!" **I find myself sweating not because of heat but fear. I could feel my heart pounding through my chest. "What are you talking about people know me." I say in an even more frightened tone. He laughs even more **"HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA oh come on kid you know that deep down no one knows you and even if they do they either don't give a shit about you or they forget all about you within a year or two. Hell you own family probably doesn't even know you and you know it." **I went from scared to pissed off. "What the hell are you talking about a lot of people know me and of course my family knows me!" He stopped laughing as says in a dark voice **"Look kid there's no use lying to me cause you're only lying to yourself. I know that you know that everyone you've ever know since you were little has turned there backs on you and left you hanging, forgeting all about you. I also know that you can't stand others because you know that they'll forget about you as well!" **At this point you can see the smoke coming out of my ears. "You bastard!" He laughs again **"For once you're right." **I knew what he was driving at and as I was about to say something I heard a familiar voice "Michael you can't let this guy get to you.! You need to control your emotions!" I look behind me to see Yu, Youske, Chie, Yukiko, and some weird bear thing are standing right there. "What are you guys doing here?" I ask them. My shadow then said **"Oh hey some more losers who will forget all about you." **I shout saying "SHUT UP WHAT THE HELL DO YOU KNOW ABOUT ME YOU BASTARD?!" He chuckles and says **"I know that I am you and you are me and that there's no getting around it kiddo." **I explode and scream "NO YOU'RE NOT..." Yu shouts from behind "No don't say it!"

"YOU'RE NOT ME YOU PEICE OF SHIT!"

**"hahahaHAHAHAHAHAHA! NOT ANYMORE I'M NOT DUMBASS.!"**

I found myself slipping into unconsciounsness but before i passed out I saw my shadow become some kind of monster. And Yu and the others start attacking with some weird creatures.

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**Time skip: 1 hour later**

I woke up to the sound of my friends calling my name. I got up and saw my shadow barely standing and staring me dead in the eyes. I wasn't so much scared as I was free. Free from a lie that i had been telling myself for years. I walk up to my shadow and give him a stern look and say "You're right. All the things that you said are true I just didn't want be reminded that all of my life has just been my friends moving from being there for me to just not giving a crap about what happens to me." I feel a tear roll down my cheek. "You were also right in saying that my family may not even care. But the saddest thing of all is that you were right about being a bastard." I heard Yu say behind me "You're not alone anymore." I turn around, my eyes red and watery, and say to him "I know that now." I look back at my shadow and say firmly "That also means you're not alone either, Afterall you're me and I'm you." I smile at my shadow. He smiles back and nods. He starts to glow and before I knew it there was something standing in his place. Some kind of warrior with a weapon that's ends look like two cresent moons. I then hear a voice **"Thou art I and I am thou from the sea of the soul I cometh. I am Ongyo-Ki the Shadow Dweller." **I fall to my knees as Ongyo-Ki disappears and say as everyone aporaches "You guys have got a shit ton of explaining to do when I regain consciousness." With that i assed out again.

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**There you have it Michael's Persona is Ongyo-Ki, my second favorite persona. I'm gonna mix it up a bit when i have him transform but you'll have to wait and see. Sorry I didn't put in the fight see but since I'm doing this in my OC's POV it wouldn't make sense and I didn't wanna change POV's but don't worry there will be action in this series if not I will do nothing because there will be action in this series. Next chapter Mike joins the team and other stuff. Who knows maybe I'll do that today to you never know.**

**Next Time: Welcom to the Investigation Team**


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3: Michael's Story

**I do not own Persona all rights go to Shin Megami Tensei and Atlus.**

**WE'RE BACK! I decided to change Michael joining the team until the next chapter and let you all in on his story and what he's been through.**

**On with the show!**

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"Shit could not possibly get any fucking worse." Which is the first thing a say when i woke up and realized I'm in another fucking hospital. 'Least this one doesn't smell of death a decay.' I look around and see my friends sitting next to my bed. "Hey you're awake, man you sure love to sleep you've been out like a light for two days straight." Youske said with a smirk. "Well after all that happened can ya blame me?" He shook his head no."Well at least you're awake now and out of that other place." Chie says with a relieved look on her face. I could tell that they were all worried about me. "I can hardly see the difference between this hell and the hell I just escaped from." I say in a smartass tone. "The doctors say that you were just exahusted and said once you've regained you're strength you can leave." Yu said. I sigh a sigh of relief knowing I can leave this place soon. I then looked behind Yu and saw Marie, the girl I ran into the other day. 'What's she doing here?' I didn't even realise that while I thought that I also said out loud for everyone to hear, Marie included. She answered back saying "I don't know I just felt like I had to come and see if you were doing okay." I smiled saying "Thanks that's real nice of you Marie." She blushed and paniced saying "N-n-n-no need to get all sappy you stupiddumbidiot!" I laughed it off while Yu said to me "She says stuff like that to everyone you get used to it...eventually."He ended with a sigh. "You may have a lot of questions but we'll answer them once you're outta here so just take it easy until then okay? We don't need ya passing out again." I did a sarcastic laugh and said "Bite me." Soon everyone had left. Well everyone except for Marie for some reason. She just looked at me and said "Are you sure you're okay. I'd hate to leave you alone if you aren't." I laugh saying "No need to get all sappy." She then flicked my playfully punched my arm. She then looked at me a little said and asked "So what was you're shadow like?" I got serious and said "At first I just thought he was a dick but then I realized that he really was, I mean IS me." I looked down and clenced my hands "He reminded me of everything that I had tried to forget and I hate him for is. But at the same time I'm thankful that he did now I don't have to hold anything back."

She then asked me the thing I didn't want to hear "So what were you trying to forget?"

I was silent for awhile until i finally said "Everything." She looked confused. "When I was little I only had a few friends but they were all I needed to be happy. I always thought that nothing would tear us apart. But boy was I wrong." I started to cry a little without noticing. "We eventually lost touch and with it I guess we lost our friendship. When I finally saw them again in middle school, they all looked at me and asked if they knew me. It was at that point I realized that the people I had called friends were long gone. But that wasn't the worst part." By now I knew I was crying. I wanted to stop talking but I really needed to tell this to someone. "Around the same time my mom got sick. She was diagnosed with myelodysplasia and was sent to the hospital. She was gone for about four months. A few days after she got home she got worse than ever. Eventually that myelodysplasia became full blown leukimia. About a month later... I lost her." Now my voice was starting to crack. "Since then my family hasn't been the same they're all just a buch of pricks who stab each other in the back whenever they can. That's why I came to Japan to get away from all of that madness." I hadn't even noticed that Marie was starting to cry a little. When I had finished she came over to me and held my head and said "That's the saddest thing I've ever heard. How could you're friends just leave you in the dark? And then you're mother just dies in the midst of all that? You don't deserve any of that shit." I hugged her and said "Thank you Marie. But there's nothing I can do about it now so I'll have to just keep moving forward." We let go and then a nurse came in saying "Excuse me miss but visiting hours are over you must leave." Before she left she did the most unexpected thing to me.

She kissed me on the cheek.

I just sat there in shock asking myself "What the fuck just happened?" The nurse said something but i was in to much shock to pay her any attention. When she left and turned off the light I was in the same position I was in before. It wasn't long until I said "Seriously what the fuck just happened in my life today?

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**There you have it. Little shoter than the others but it's an origin story what do ya want from me? What did ya think about the whole thing with Marie? Too much? I know it seemed kinda OOC but I just figured what the hell? Okay so next chapter I promise he joins the team.**

**Next Time: Welcome to the Investigation Team(for real)**


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4: Welcome to the Investigation Team**

**I do not own Persona all rights go to Shin Megami Tensei and Atlus**

**Today we really join the team. Enjoy!**

**On with the show!**

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"Where the hell is that uniform! I know I put it here somewhere!" Today was my first day at Yasogami Hich School and I couldn't find my fucking uniform. It may almost be time for summer vacation but I don't give a damn I just wanna get the first day over with ASAFP(As Soon As Fucking Possible)! I eventually found my uniform under my bed. "Good thing I'm a runner otherwise I'm fucked!" I spint out the door and leave the Amagi Inn and just barely get on the bus to the shopping district. Once the doors opend I'm off again. I make it to school with still a few minutes to spare."That's gotta be some kind of record for me." I say trying not to throw up my brekfast. I soon run into what I asume is a teacher. I can't tell with those fucking teeth of his. "Oh you must be the new student from America." He says with an annoyed look. "Yes sir I am." He looks at me like he's trying to find drugs on my person. "Ok follow me kid and we'll introduce ya to the class." 'Well he seems nice enough' I thought as we walked down the hall. We entered a classroom where I saw Yu, Youske, Chie, and Yukiko crowding each other. They all waved at me and I waved back. "Alright everyone shut the hell up!" 'WHAT THE FUKING FUCK?!' I shout in my head after hearing that. We've got another new transfer student and this ones from America so he's some sad foreign loser who probably just got kicked outta his parents house. So to all you girls don't get any ideas with this one." 'LOSER?!' He turns towards me and says "Tell 'em your name kid."

"Who in the name of fuck are you calling a loser you buck-toothed donkey fuck?! By the way I'm Michael Williams"

Everyones jaws just fucking plummeted. Except for Yu and the others they were trying not to laugh there asses off at the sound of me cussing out a teacher. "THAT'S IT KID YOU'RE GOING ALL THE WAY AT THE TOP OF MY SHIT LIST!" 'Gotta be one long list with a dick like him." Youske regains his composure and points to a seat next to him so i just head on over and flip off King Moron. "Dude you're one crazy motherfucker!" He says while patting my back. "What a dick." I say ignoring the compliment. I hardly paid any attention to King Morons lecture considering it was about how stupid we (but mostly me) were. The bell rang. 'Thank you God.' The others came up to me and Yu asked "Could you come with us to the roof to talk about you know what?" I nod and say "Yeah lead the way."

We get to the roof and have a seat on what we can use as one. "So Mike do you remember anything from when you were kidnapped?" Youske asked me. "All I remember is one of the staff waking me up saying that someone wanted to see me. I went down to the lobby and sure enough no one was there. It's all a blur after that. But I think I remember being thrown somewhere don't know where though." Yu then asked "A TV perhaps?" I looked way confused. "The fuck do ya mean? You sayin I was thrown into a TV?" Youske facepalmed. "Oh duh I forgot we never told you where you were. You may have thought it was a werid creepy hospital but it was really someplace inside of the TV."

"A place inside the TV? Well 's not the weirdest thing I've seen or heard the last week." 'The weirdest is Marie kissing my cheek probably.' Yu looked at the others and said "So what happened to Michael was the same as with Yukiko. The killer came and asked for Michael specifically and threw him into the TV. There's definitley a pattern." I then realized something and told the others "What I find weird is that no one in this town knows who I am except for you guys and Marie. You guys saved me and Marie's totally harmless from what I can tell so how would they know my name and where I was?" Then it hit me like a ton of bricks. "Wait maybe it has to do with the fact that I was interviewed on my way to Yukiko's inn. I gave that reporter my name and everything." Everyone seemed to have known what I was getting at. "Yukiko didn't you get interviewed too?" She nooded yes. "Saki was interviewed too for finding that first body." Youske said. "This may sound crazy but what if people who appear on regular TV are the ones the killer is kidnapping?" Everyone looked shocked a what I had said. "It makes perfect sense evey victim was the center of media attention in one way or another before they appeared on the Midnight Channel!" Yu said. "Then it looks like we're gonna have to keep an eye on the regular TV and the Midnight Channel if we plan to find out who the killer is gonna go after." I say with a determined look on my face. "Wait we?" Youske asked confused. "Yeah you guys saved my sorry ass and I wanna repay the favor and help you guys catch this prick so I can give a bit of an ass kicking before he's locked up!" Everyone looked at Yu. "Well it's your call leader what do ya say?" Youske asked Yu. Yu walked towards me and extended his hand. "You'd be a great addition to the team. You're more than welcome to join." I grabbed Yu's hand and shook it and said "Thank you Yu I promise I won't let you guys down." With all that said and done I decided to go home. But before a got to the bus stop I ran into none other than Marie. "Marie? What are you doing out this late?" She looked in my direction and said "I had something to do so I'm on my way back now. Are you feeling any better?" She asked with a concerned look on her face. I answer back with a smile "Haha you kidding? It takes a lot more than a shadow to keep me down for long." She giggled at my poor attempt at a joke. "Hey I want you to hang out with me sometime and I'm not taking no for an answer." She said making me sweatdrop. "Haha you don't waste time do ya? I don't think I could say no even if I had an option. I'd be happy hang out with you. What did you have in mind?" She shrugged. "I don't know you decide I don't know anything about this world." I just brushed that off thinking it was an odd joke. " Well when I come up with something I'll give ya a call." With that we parted ways and I went back to the Inn. As I drift to sleep I think to myself 'I'm part group trying to solve a muder case and I think I've met the girl of my dreams. I think I'm gonna like this town.'

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**Yet another chapter done. Hope you enjoyed. Feel free to review and all that. Next chapter Michael enters the TV world and does other shit. Stay tuned.**

**Next Time: My New Life**


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5: My New Life

**I do not own Persona all rights go to Shin Megami Tensei and Atlus**

**First off I'd like to thank vincent the vizard for this stories first review. Don't have to wait long for an update vincent cause it's right here!**

**Now that thanks are out of the way...**

**On with the show!**

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Once school ended the guys thought it would be a good idea to show me the TV world. We went to the electronics department at Junes and we went into the TV. Yes I know what I said. The next thing I know I'm at, what seems to be, a studio. I look around and sure enough nothing but a shit ton of fog. That's what I thought until I saw the bear from when the others saved me. "Hi there Mikey nice to see you're okay." The bear spoke leaving me speechless. Youske waves his hand in my face "Hey Mike you in there buddy? I honestly think he's broken guys." I shook my head to bring myself back to reality in the TV world. The bear was just staring at me " Did Mikey become a mute?" That's when it hit me. 'He's calling me Mikey? WHAT THE FUCK!?' I respond a little miffed saying " Look bear my name's not Mikey it's Michael or Mike. Those are the options pick one.

"I choose...um...er... Mikey!" The bear said.

"I give up." I say trying ignoring everyone's laughter as the bear decides what to call me. Notice I said trying. "Damn you all." I mutter under my breath. "Anyway my name's Teddie." 'Figures.' "I'm hear to give you your glasses." Confused. "Glasses why would I need glasses?" I say before look closer at the others and see them all wearing glasses. "Oh I think I get it. They'll help me see through the fog right?" Teddie nodded or bowed or whatever he did to confirm my then hands me a pair of glasses but I couldn't see what they looked like but I could tell they were different from the others. "Uh is this right? They seem way different from the others glasses." I put them on but I can't see shit. All I see is a giant nose with hair sticking out of the nostrils and some swirls. I then realized that these motherfuckers just fucking trolled me. "GRRRRRRR YOU ASSHOLES!" That's when they all start laughing like there's no tomorrow. Then I took off the glasses and shoved them back into Teddie's apparently empty suit. Once again I don't give a shit I'm pissed. "Heeey what was that for?" I then snatched the other pair of glasses in Teddies hand and put them on. They were a white pair with four colored stripes on the sides. "That was for fucking with me I'll get you guys soon enough!" I said turning to the others. That's when Yu got out of his laugh-a-thon and said "Now that we're here I say we get some training done. Come on guys." We followed Yu to the last place I wanted to be. The Bloodied Hospital. "Why do you hate me so much?" I ask with anime style tears coming out of my eyes. We then entered the hospital. The team consisted of Yu, me, Youske, and Yukiko. We traversed te first floor with no enemies in our way we eventually came across a pair of shadows that appeared to be wearing some kind of unrestricted straight jacket. I focused and a card appeared in my hand seeing as I didn't have a weapon yet I crushed it with my bare hand and shouted...

"PERSONA!"

With that Ongyo-Ki appeared behind me. I ordered it to strike them both with Maziodyne. Afree that I orderd it to strike with Vorpal Blade. And with that they were history and only me and Ongyo-Ki were left standing. The others looked at me in shock and Teddie finally said "Wow Mikey you defeated two powerful shadows on your own in less than a minute you'd probably give Sensei a run for his money." I rubbed the back of my head and my face flashed red. We eventually made it to the final floor where a giant table with hospital tools floating above it. Yu took the fist strike with Izanagi bringing down the lightning with Ziodyne. It hardly seemed affected in fact it looked stronger. "Waaah zio attacks won't work!" Teddie said behind us. Then Youske tried to blow it away with Jiraiya using Garula. This time it reflected te attack and Youske took damage "Wind won't work either guys." Youske said trying to stand up. Next Yukiko and Konohana Sakuya tried to burn the shadow with Agilao. But it just seemed unaffected. "AHHH fire is useless!" Teddie said panicing. Finally I decided to take a shot and had Ongyo-Ki attack with Primal Force. "It worked physical attacks are what it's weak against!" Teddie said with excitement. "I'd say it's time to fuck shit up and kick this things ass!" With that we all attacked at once with an All-Out Attack. With that the shadow died. When it's blood vanished between the cracks in the floor I notice something on the ground. A pair of two swords with very sharp edges and a black hilt on one and white on the other. While the sword with the black hilt had a white blade the one with the white hilt had a black blade. "Sweet." I say as I admire the blades and take a few practice swings. And I was a fucking boss with them. A natural born dual swordsman. We then decided to leave the TV world.

Before I reach the bus stop I once again cross paths with Marie. "This is becoming a regular thing ain't it?" I snidely remarked. "Oh hey." She then looked at what I had in my hands. "Nice swords. You just get them?" she asked me. "Yeah got them at a great price." 'By that I mean I found them in another world.' I then noticed she had something in her hand as well. "That's one weird comb ya got. Is that bamboo it's made out of." She nodded yes. "I don't even know how or why I have it." She said a little sad. "What do you mean?" I ask her a little concerned. "I can't remember anything about my past. My name, my personality, everything about me is wrong." she started to cry a little. Without thinking I wrapped my arms around her in a warm embrace. "It may not mean much coming from me but I lithe you just the way you are." I could tell without looking she was blushing. "But if you want maybe I can help you get your memory back. What do ya say?" She then wrapped her arms around me as well and said "Thank you. Thank you do much Michael." 'I take that as a yes.' I then let go of her but not before I planted a kiss on her forehead making her blush a deeper shade of red. "Whenever you feel like it give me a shout and we'll see if we can't find out anything. I gotta go so I'll see ya around." With that I got on the bus and waved goodbye. When I got back to the Amagi Inn I just layed on my bed and couldn't help but feel sorry for Marie.

"From today forward I'll vow to do everything in and out of my power to help Marie get her memory back."

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**There you have it five chapters in one day. That'll keep you guys goin for a while until ican update again. I know I'm making Marie a little OOC in this story but hey I'm just typing what I'm thinking. Next chapter Michael joins a sports team where I'll reveal a new OC or two.**

**Next Time: Track Team**


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 5: The Track Team

**I do not own Persona all rights go to Shin Megami Tensei and Atlus**

**Today I introduce a new OC enjoy!**

**On with the show!**

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The bell signaling the end of school rang and I just sat at my desk for a few minutes before I let out a sigh. "Hey Mike. You look a little down, what's up." Yu says from behind me. "Oh hey Yu. I'm fine it's just that after school I've got nothing to do and goin to the TV world just makes me feel like I'm goin to work. I just need something to do to kill time after school." I let out another sigh. Yu then put his hand on my shoulder and said "Well if ya need something to do after school why don't you join a sports team. You can come with me and join the basketball team." I responded saying "A sports team huh? Well basketball isn't really my thing, ya know if the school has a track team or something like that?" He thought it over for a minute and finally said "Um yeah there should be. Just go talk to King Moron about joining one." That was when I slammed my head on the desk. "Damn. I can hear him lecturing me now." I then headed down to the faculty office and I was right. I found myself being lectured on how I'm joining a team just so I can score with the girls at this school. I tuned him out for the most part but I could still feel his voice penetrating the wall I made. He told me to just go to the back of the school and talk to the captain of the team Karl Sanders, who was apparently another student from America. I headed to the back of the school and asked the team where I could find Karl. "You're lookin for the captain?" I hear a voice say to me. I turn around and see a guy with very tan skin, short brown hair, and a well toned body wearing a track uniform. "Well here I am. What can I do for ya? Hey aren't you that new guy from America?" I nodded "Thought so. So you here to join the team bud?"

"Hell yeah I am where do I sign?" I say with excitement. "Well before we decide wether or not you're on the team you have to go through an initiation." I was deeply confused. "Initiation? Well what do I have to do?" He got on one of the lines on the track. "All you gotta do is race me and I'll determine wether or not you're in. Sound good?" I smiled because I knew he'd be suprised at how fast I was. Back home I was the fastest guy on the team. I took a running stance. "Ready. Set. GO!" We did a full circuit on the track. Karl was a great runner I could see how he was the captain of the team. But in the end I was still victorious by about half a second. Everyone was shocked to see me win in a race against their captain. Karl came up to me and extended his hand. "Only the captain before me was able to beat me. I'd say you more then qualify to be on this team. In this family." I smiled and grabbed him by the forearm and we stared at each other vigorously. "But since you beat me that makes you my rival so expect another challenge from me in the near future." I nodded back and said "I look forward to it." Seeing as how it was my first day on the team and the still needed to get a uniform ready for me I just sat on the bleachers and watched. When practice ended Yu and two others decided to pay me a visit. One of the two others had a patch on his face and very short brown hair. The other one had black hair. "So you're the guy Narukami's been talkin about? I'm Kou Ichijo nice to meet ya man." The boy with black hair introduced himself to me. "Daisuke Nagase what's up?" The other boy anounced to me. I introduced myself to both of them. "So how'd it go?" I hear Yu ask me. "AWESOME! First thing I do when I get here is race the captain and win! It was the best race I've had in years!" They all laughed amused that it went well. "Okay no need to anounce my defeat to the whole world." I hear Karl say, who had just gotten done changing in the locker room. Everyone found it appropriate to introduce themselves to Karl. "Hey we were just about to go hit up Aiya's you guys wanna tag along?" Kou invited us. "I'm game how bout you Karl?" He nooded and we headed to Aiya's.

We all just talked about random crap and I had learned that Kou was really adopted and how his family doesn't even want him to play basketball. Says it to "barbaric". "It's basketball, not a gladiator match." I say to Kou. "That's what I've told them but they just won't listen." I then patted his back "Well it's pretty noble and admirable of ya to keep doing what you like. I respect that man." He smiled and said "Thanks man." After we all went our seperate ways I found myself alone with Karl. "I can kinda understand where Kou's coming from." He said out of the blue. "Huh?" I asked confused. "My parents don't let me do a lot of things either but I can't quit running. It's just to important to me to give up." I nodded and said "That's the spirit don't let anyone tell ya that ya can't do what ya love to do." He thanked me and we headed off in seperate directions. Before I made it to the bus stop I bumped into someone. But not Marie. It was a boy with bleach blonde hair, no eyebrows, a scar on the side of his face, a few peircings, and he was wearing a Yasogami uniform. 'This guy goes to our school? Never seen him before.' He kept walking ignoring my existance. "Sorry man." I apologized. I then looked at my feet and noticed he had dropped something. A pink rabbit cellphone strap. I picked it up and called out to him "Hey you dropped something!" He turned around and saw what I was holding and started to panic. "T-t-t-that's not mine!" I was confused. 'Well it's not mine.' "But it-" I was cut off by him shouting "I SAID IT AIN'T MINE DAMMIT!" With that he ran off. I decided to put the cellphone strap in my pocket. I shrugged and said "Oh well." I then headed home.

When I layed down on my bed I looked at my calender. I notice 'Golden Week' was circled. "Oh yeah Golden week is tomorrow. Finally a break from all this shit." With that I fell asleep excited for the long break I would have starting tomorrow.

* * *

**There's the new OC Karl Sanders. Whenever I add an OC I'll usually make them American cause I don't know many Japanese names. And I know the dates seem a little fucked up but I hope to eventually get on track with that. So next chapter Golden Week starts and you know what that means. You don't then why're you reading this? Play the game then read this so you know what's goin on. Anyway next chapter Michael finally meets Nanako.**

**Next Time: Someone I Can Relate To**


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7: Someone I Can Relate To

**I do not own Persona all rights go to Shin Megami Tensei and Atlus**

**Today Michael meets Nanako and I'm goin big on this one. That being said...**

**On with the show!**

* * *

I was just sitting in my bed playing my guitar when I suddenly got a phone call. "Yu's calling? Wonder what he wants." I answer the phone "Hey Yu what's up?" He responded in a happy tone "Hey Mike the gangs all coming to Junes you should come. I'm bringing my little cousin too." 'His cousin? Eh what the hell I got nothing better to do.' I repeat what I just thought into the phone. "Great we'll see ya then." I change out of my pajama pants and get into my street clothes. I then grab my board and head out.

When I got to Junes everyone was in there usual spots. I then saw who I assumed to be Yu's cousin. She had brown hair in a pigtails style, a pink top with a white longsleeve underneath and had a smile that would brighten the darkest of days. I take my usual spot next to Yu and Youske asks "Why'd you bring poor Nanako to a place like this on Golden Week?" Chie answered saying "Well where else is there to go?" I snidely remark saying "She's got ya there pal there ain't much to do in this town." That's when Nanako said with excitement "I love Junes!" That obviously thrilled Youske considering the way he said "And I love Nanako!" Once again i snidely remark saying "Easy tiger she's just a kid." He walks over to me and slaps the back of my head and said "Dude shut up!" 'Worth it.' He walked back over to his seat and Nanako's expression darkend. "But we were supposed to go on a real trip somewhere. We were going to make boxed lunches." 'This kid can make boxed lunches? Damn kids these days sure a quick to learn how to cook.' Yukiko apparently thought the same thing as me and said "Wow you can make boxed lunches Nanako?" She shook her head no and looked towards Yu. That made him nervous. 'That doesn't suprise me.' Chie apparently read my mind too and said teasingly "Oh so you're the family cook? Pretty impressive Big Bro." Nanako repeated what Chie said about Yu being her brother. Youske said with amazement "Wow you can cook. Well you do seem pretty good with your han- er nevermind." I would have shouted "gay" but then I remembered the were children present. Chie continued on the subject of cooking and said with little to no confidence "W-well I'm a pretty good cook too. If you asked me I would've have whipped up some boxed lunches easy as pie, yeah." Then it was Youske's turn to be a smartass "Um let me think about- no." This caused me to laugh. "You think I cant cook well let's have a cook off and see for ourselves!" Chie retorted angrily. "My my doth the lady protest too much? And hey I never said I cooked! But I have this weird feeling...like I'd win anyway." Youske once again being a smartass. Then Yukiko joined me in laughing and said "Haha I can kinda see that." Chie was shocked that her best friend doubted her. "Wha- Yukiko." Then Youske looked towards Nanako. "Here Nanako can be our judge. I bet we'll make something that ranks up there with your mom's cooking." Nanako looked sad again. "I don't have a mom. She died in an accident." 'What her mother's dead too?' And I thought I had it rough.' Then I looked a little sad as I thought that. "Youske." Chie said with a little sadness." I-I see. Sorry I didn't know." Youske said deeply depressed regretting what he said. Nanako shook her head and said "It's okay even though I don't have a mom I have dad with me. And now I have a brother too. And I'm having a lot of fun today. I love Junes!" She said the last part with much excitement. 'Wow kids really are mature.' "Yeah that's good." Youske said with some relief in his voice.

We'll play with you anytime you want Nanako." Chie said. "Yeah just give us a shout and we'll come running." Iaway agreeing with Chie. Everyone else nodded in agreement. "Come on Nanako let's go get a soda." Youske said exciting Nanako as she said "Okay!" They left us at the table. "She's a strong girl." Yukiko says as they leave. "Yeah she make me feel like I'm the little kid here." Chie then got pumped after saying that " Well that's it. I'm gonna get something for Nanako too. Then Chie and Yukiko left leaving Narukami and I alone. "I can understand where your cousin's coming from Yu." I say after a few moments of silence. He seemed to know what I was trying to say and said "You mean-?" I nodded and said "Yeah my mother's dead too." He was shocked to hear this. "If you don't mind me asking what happened?" I looked down and said "Look man after hearing your cousin I'd rather not say today I'll tell you another day." He put a supporting hand on my shoulder and said " I understand." Nanako came back and ask Yu and I if we wanted something. She suggested we got some takoyaki, whatever the hell that is.

We parted ways and went home and I ran back into the guy from yesterday. I approached him and before I said anything he cut me off and said "I already told ya that thing ain't mine beat it." He just kept walking. I shrugged it off and headed home and layer down in my bed thinking about what Nanako said about not having a mom and thought to myself 'She may sound mature about it but she must really miss her. Life without a mother is absolute misery.'

* * *

**There we have it Nanako and Michael finally meet. See what I'm driving at? You don't well read the story until you do. Next the Midnight Channel returns for another round.**

**Next Time: Stalking A "Thug"**


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter 8: Stalking A "Thug"

**I do not own Persona all rights go to Shin Megami Tensei and Atlus**

**Before I start I'd just like to apologize because I just looked over my other chapters and saw a shit ton of grammar problems and that's cause I write most of my chapters on my IPod since I can only use the computer when my dad's out and the auto correct just fucks up everything. So I'm sorry. Today we move on with the plot.**

**On with the show!**

* * *

The last two days of Golden Week just flew by and for the most part I just caught up on some sleep. I had run into the guy with the bleached hair a couple of times too but he always told me to beat it. Once school was back in session I was pretty much at that point where I don't give a shit about what the teacher say (especially King Moron). But I somehow ended up getting sick for a day or two. The worst part about school being back in was the mid term exams we soon had. For the most part I was pretty confident about the answers I had chosen considering I already knew most of the stuff on the test. Chie and Youske on the other hand well let's just say I've been praying that they did at least above average. Today was the day it was supposed to rain again and the others made sure to remind me to watch the Midnight Channel. As I sat on my bed staring at my reflection in the screen, waiting for the Midnight Channel to turn on, I also look at the rabbit cellphone strap that the guy with the bleached hair had dropped and think to myself 'He says it's not his but it wasn't on the ground until I bumped into him and it sure as hell ain't mine. Is kinda cute though.' Suddenly the Midnight Channel appeared and I saw a person. It appeared to be a male but that's all that I could make out. But he did look familiar. Just as the image disappeared my phone rang. It was Yu.

"Yo you see it too?" I ask Yu in a serious tone.

"Yeah I think it might be Kanji Tatsumi." He says to me.

I had another confused look on my face "Who's he?" I ask. "You didn't see the news report on him the other day?" I shook my head and said "No way I don't watch the news that shit's too boring for me." He sighed into the phone. "Well look up the news report online. We're meeting at Junes to talk about it we'll see ya there." I nod and say "Yeah see ya." I hang up my phone and look back at my TV. "Kanji Tatsumi huh?" I repeat the name Narukami had mentioned. "We'll I'll find out soon enough." I say as I go to sleep.

The next day at Junes before we got to the heart of the matter Youske made an announcement. "Ahem, we will now hold a meeting on our investigation of the serial kidnapping-slash-murder case here in Inaba." Chie looked towards Youske and said "Dude, take a breath!" Youske's announcment seemed to have excited Yukiko. "Oh, then does that make this place our special headquarters?" She asks with delight. "Yes! Exactly! Nicley put Yukiko." Youske answers her question. Chie then decided to look around. "Special headquarters... Hmm, that does have a nice ring to it." Chie remarks with exceitment. "Never heard of a special headquartes that's actually a food court table but I guess it'll do." I say also kinda admiring the fact that we have our own HQ. "Anyways as for what was on last night..." Youske started finally getting to the point of us being here today. Did you guys watch it last night?" Yu asked to make sure everyone knew what was going on. "I saw it too." Chie said answering Yu's question. I couldn't get a good view of the guy's face but it was a guy wasn't it?" Chie continued. "Yeah definetley a dude." I say answering Chie. "So that's what I looked liKe on TV." Yukiko said still trying to take it all in. "Before we go on what do you guys think it is that ties all of these victims together?" I ask. "Oh yeah you weren't here when we discussed that." Youske said realizing that I missed out on a meeting while I was sick once school was back in session. "Guess so." I say with a little annoyance considering no one bothered to tell me until now that I missed a meeting. "We had come to a conclusion that the victims had become famous through the media." Yu says bringing me up to speed. "I guess that makes sense considering I was interveiwed before I was kidnapped." I say putting two and two together. "In mine and Michael's case, the image on the Midnight Channel changed after we were kidnapped right." Yukiko says as I think to myself 'It did?' "Yeah, the screen got clear all of a sudden, and the program looked like some low-budget TV show. Come to think of it maybe Teddie was right... Maybe we were seeing you guys' shadows in that world." Youske said. "But last night, we couldn't clearly see whoever it was. Could that mean... he isn't inside the TV yet?" Yukiko asked putting more insight on things. "I think it's safe to assume that for now." I say answering Yukiko's question. "Uh-huh I think that's safe to assume. If we can figure out who he is, can we prevent him from being taken?" Yukiko asked curiously. "Yeah... And if all goes well, we might catch the killer in the bargain." Youske said before groaning "But to do that, we have to know who the latest Midnight Channel star is. I hate to say it, but I guess we'll have to wait another night and see what happens." Chie, who was pretty much silent most of the conversaton, finally said something. Only it was exactly everything we just said. That being said I slammed my head on the table tuning out the arguement she and Youske soon had. But I was brought back into reality by Yukiko's laughing. "Hehehehehe you're so funny Chie. Oh no m-my funny bone." We all sweatdropped. "This is how Yukiko really is, huh... Who'd have thought?" Youske said what everyone was thinking. It was then Chie and Youske had realized that they had seen who was on the Midnigh't Channel recently just like me. Yukiko just kept laughing the whole time. "Grrr, when are you gonna stop that, you crazy hyena!?" Chie asked with annoyance. This just caused Yukiko to laugh even harder. "Way to go Chie you've made things worse." I saw in a smartass tone. With that we went home.

That night when the Midnight Channel came on I saw the exact same person from the night before. It was only after the image disappeared I decided to look up Kanji Tatsumi. And I was right. The person I had bumped into for the past few days was the same person we were all seeing on the Midnight Channel. I fell asleep knowing the person on the Midnight Channel was Kanji Tatsumi.

The next day after school we all got together to discuss what was on last night. "The one who was on last night... It's THAT guy right?" Chie said for some reason not saying the name. "Kanji Tatsumi huh? He definitely didn't look like the social type." Now there's an understatement. Isn't he really scary? Did you see the news special the other day?" Chie asked with a small bit of fear in her voice. "Yeah I saw it." Youske said answering Chie's question. "You mean the special on biker gangs? I saw it too. He wasn't like that when he was younger, though." Everyone was shocked. "You know him Yukiko?" Chie asked more suprised than any of us. "Uh-huh, but we haven't talked to each other in a long time. His family runs a textile shop and we've been a customer of theirs for many years. So I speak with Kanji's mother from time to time." Yukiko says nonchalantly. "Oh, why don't we go there now? We might be able to talk to him in person." She suggested. "Sounds good at the least we can ask if anything starnge has come up lately." Chie said agreeing with Yukiko. "Alright then let's get going." Youske said. "If things get rough, we're counting on you guys!" Chie said gesturing towards Yu, Youske and I which shocked us.

When we got to the place labeled "Tatsumi Textiles" I saw an old lady chatting with some guy. He wore what seemed to be a blue detective outfit with hair to match. "Hello." Yukiko said trying to get the old womans attention. "Ah Yukiko it's so nice to see you." The old woman said acknowledging our existance. "Well then, if you'll excuse me Ma'am." The boy in blue said. "I'm sorry that I couldn't help more." The old woman apologized. "It's all right: you've given me plenty to think about. Thank you." The boy said as he turned to us. Upon closer inspection he seemed to look more like a girl. He then exited the shop. "What's up with him? Weirdo." Youske said insulting the boy or girl or whatever as he or she left. "Yukiko, you're as lovely as always." The old woman said getting our attention. "How can I help you today? Are you out shopping with your friends?" We had asked her if we could talk to Knji but it seemed as though we just missed him. With that we left the store. Then we saw him. Kanji was talking to the boy/girl who just left the shop before us. He/she seemed to be making plans with Kanji. We could only hear him/her say something about meeting after school at the gates. When he/she left Kanji seemd confused. "He said he was intrested. But he's a guy and I'm a guy but, he's intrested in me?" Kanji said arguing with himself. He then noticed us. "Huh? What the hell are you pricks looking at!?" He charged us and ran like hell! "That scared the hell out of me. He's even worse in person than on TV." Chie said trying to catch her breath. "THAT was definitely Kanji on the Midnight Channel." I said also trying to catch my breath. 'I've never had to run that fast in my life.' I think to myself. "Hey wasn't Kanji making plans with that weird kid a moment ago? Something about meeting up at school. I heard he's been skipping school ever since the new year started... Doesn't that seem a little suspicious?" Youske reminded us. " Yeah there's something suspicious going on here... I can sense it." Chie said. "Sense? You sound like Teddie. Still we might find some clues." Alright let's try staking out both Kanji and his family's store. We definitely don't want the killer getting ahead of us." Youske said. We all nodded in agreement. "That being said... Yukiko, can I have your cell number?" Youske asks Yukiko with a little excitement. "Hey... was this your plan all along?" Chie asked in annoyance. "Uh, no? I got everyones phone number except for hers." Youske said trying to make it seem like he's not lying. "And the Y section of my adress book need some filling out." He continued. Chie sighed and said "While we're on the subject, could you stop calling me at night just to tell dirty jokes? You really sound like a pervert." I laughed and said "Dude what the fuck is wrong with you?" He tried to ignore us and said "H-Hey I'm trying to have a conversation with Yukiko here!" Yukiko then finally spoke up "Oh that reminds me... I need to pick up tofu on my way home." 'How do stakeouts and dirty phone calls remind one of tofu?!' I think. "Whoa she didn't even hear a word I said." Youske said in sadness. I patted his shoulder while saying "There there. Feel better now?" Needless to say he was pissed. We then headed home.

The next day at the school gates we waited for Kanji. As he arrived so did the person he was meeting with. We decided to split up into two groups Chie and Youske in one group to stalk Kanji and the tomboy while me,Yu, and Yukiko went to the textile shop. Things seemed alright at the store so we just waited for the others. Yu had managed to get Yukiko's number, the dog he is. He did me a solid and gave it to me as well. We then heard someone shout "Sorry about this guys!" It was Youske. He and Chie had somehow fucked up and Kanji was now after them. That's when Yukiko, Yu, and I started running like hell. We ran, no I'm sorry we sprinted for two miles straight until we finally lost him. We decided to call it a day and go home.

It was raining when I got back to the Inn and when the Midnight Channel came on let's just say I wish I could unsee what I just saw. The image was crystal clear and I saw what appeared to be a sauna. With what you would think porn music would sound like. Then Kanji appeared on the screen. "Hel-LO, dear viewers... it's time for "Bad Bad Bathhouse." He said in a seductive tone. My jaw was pretty much down to the lobby when I got the message. "Tonight I'll introduce a superb site for those searching for sublime love that surpasses the seperation of the sexes. I'm you're host, Kanji Tatsumi, serving you this scandalously special sneak-in report!" Goodness gracious, just imagine the things that might happen to me there. Oooooh! Well then, let's get this show on the road! Tootaloo!" The image disappeared.

"..."

"WHAT THE FLYING FUCK DID I JUST WITNESS AND HOW MUCH AM I GONNA HAVE TO PAY FOR THERAPY JUST SO I CAN BEGIN TO REPRESS THIS SHIT?!"

* * *

**Jesus Christ that was the longest chapter yet. Goddamn I felt awkward writing the sauna scene. And son of a bitch I have to do more of that in the next chapter. Anyway next chapter we go after Kanji.**

**Next Time: My Most Awkward Chapter**


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter 9: My Most Awkward Chapter

**I do not own Persona all rights go to Shin Megami Tensei and Atlus**

**Let's just get the most awkward chapter of my life over with.**

**On with the show!**

* * *

After waking up about half of the Amagi Inn, I got a call from Yu. "Make it quick I gotta puke!" I say still in shock and disgust at what I just witnessed. "So you don't want a copy then?" Yu said calmly. "YOU TAPED IT?! WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU?!" I flip the fuck out. "If you saw Yukiko's show you'd understand." He responded still calm. "I take it we're going into the other world tomorrow then?" I ask trying to get over the fact he just recored the thing the just made my eyes fucking BLEED! "Yeah see ya tomorrow." I hung up but that night I slept like burnt shit.

The next day I grabbed my glasses and swords and went into the TV with the others. We saw Teddie who looked a little sad. "Hey Teddie, someone's here right?" Youske asked in a serious tone. "Oh... Yep. I think someone's here." He said confirming he was upset about something. "You think? Do you know where he his?" Chie asked in a determined voice. "I dunno." Teddie responded getting more depressed. "We think it's a boy named Kanji." Yukiko said. "I dunno." 'Man Ted's down in the dumps.' "What's eating ya Ted? You seem kinda down." I ask to see if we can help. "Well I sniff and I sniff. But I still can't find out where the smell comes from."

"Aren't you thinking too much about too many things? I mean last time, you were wondering about who you really are and how long you've been here. Your head's empty to begin with dude. Don't stress out over stuff too much." Youske says in kind of a harsh tone. "You're right." Teddie says as he turns around. "Whoa he's seriously down about this." Chie says worried about Ted. "If you can't figure out where Kanji is we're in deep trouble. We can't just wander around aimlessly in a place like this." Youske said. Then Teddie got an idea. "I know what might help! You should give me a clue about this Kanji person! It's just a feeling I have. I think I could concentrate better with it. Do you have anything that could give me a good understanding of him?" I took a step forward and flashed the rabbit cellphone strap that Kanji dropped last week. "Will this help?" Teddie took a sniff and grew wide eyed. "Follow me!" He was off. "I take that as a yes." We went after Teddie.

We soon came across the sauna that was in the same program as Kanji. It was intensely hot. "Man do we really have to be in here this place really gives me the creeps." Youske says with obvious fear coming from his voice. "It's worse in person than on the Midnight Channel." I say with the same amount of fear in my voice. "Hey I know, we should split up. Chie and Yukiko can go look for Kanji while the three of us gaurd the exit." Youske gives his brilliant idea for the day. "Good plan!" Yu and I shout in unison. If this place was freaking out our fearless leader I definitely didn't wanna be here. But then Chie ruined the plan "Will you three grow up! There's no way you're leaving us behind! Look, we're here to save Kanji because we're the only ones who can! Now quit complaining and let's GO!" "She's right he's not the total thug that I thought he was we might as well nut up a bit and pull through." We met no resistance on the way to the room where we found Kanji. Or rather his Shadow. But what we saw was worse than we thought. "Oolala!" The shadow said with excitement. We all just stared in disturbence. "My,my thank you for noticing me. I am Kanji." It said winking at us. The guys and I had had enough of this shit so we all summoned or Personas. We were just gonna unleash hell on this fucker. Once again Chie ruined the plan. "Alright alrigh! Wit a sec!" "Screw that! I say we just get this done! I can't take another second in this freaky place!" Youske says in a panic. "Well, well, well. We're here LIVE from the tropical paridise suspicious! All this steam is making my blood start to pump." The shadow said in a disturbing tone. Thankfully Chie decided to join the sane side and decided to unleash hell with us. This time Teddie ruined the plan. "Come on Chie not you too!" Teddie said ruining our plan to get this over with ASFP. "Sorry but this guy really bugs me." Chie argued. "Yeah, just a bit." Yu agreed "Not a bit a fucking LOT! I'm losing my snaity in here!" I shout. "Alright sweeties, since everyone's all hot and bothered. Let's go to our next segment!" The shadow shouted as some title screen appeared. It read and I quote: "No girls allowed! Take the Plunge! It's the steamy paradise of love." "This could get a little awkward, in more ways than one." Yu said nervously. "Man when we saved Mike it was just like this." Youske said. "The fuck were you watching from what I saw it was way more horrific and was nothing like this!" I yell. "Who's creating these weird ass images anyway, the person who's throwing people in here?" Youske asked. "I really do love getting my groove on with you, but I must continue my search for the BUMP AND GRIND! Follow if you dare!" The shadow exclaimed as it left the room. That's when two security gaurd looking shadows appeared. As everyone else was getting ready to fight I just stood with my hair covering my eyes. "There's no way in shit my experience was like this! ARGH DAMMIT NOW I'M PISSED!" I shout at the top of my lungs. "I positioned my arms, each holding a sword, in an 'X' shaped position.

"PERSONA!"

I slice the card and I start bringing the heat with Ongyo-Ki. Literally. Youske being unprepared for my fire attack had Jiraiya run right into the flames causing him to light up as well. "AH WHAT THE HELL MIKE?! HOW BOUT A LITTLE WARNING NEXT TIME?!" Then Chie cooled things down with a Mabufu attack. Now Youske was frozen. "Okay now I'm freezing. Can't we get a little moderation here?!" Youske says trying to warm up. Yu had Izanagi break the copsicles and we moved on. We proceeded to the next floor and there was a giant strongman shadow waiting for us. No doubt that damned shadow sent it after us. This time I decided to get physical with this fucker (In a non gay way). That's when it reflected it causing it to come right back towards me. Youske hit it with Garula. Yukiko with Agilao, Chie with Bufula, and Yu with Zionga. Eventually one of us landed a critical. "Should we show 'em who's boss?" Youske asked hinting we go for an All-Out Attack. When the smoke from said attack vanished we saw the shadow was toast. We proceeded to the final floor. But it was oddly decorated. More so than the rest of this place. "He's in here isn't he?" Yu asked getting nervous again. "Yeah he's gotta be." Youske said trying to play it cool. "Okay, let's go in there and take this guy!" Chie said with false determination. "Yeah and just stay cal." I say also with false determination. "You might wanna take your own advide dude." Youske remarked snidely. We stood in the same spot for about thirty seconds in awkward silence. "Um, why aren't you guys opening the door?" Teddie breaks the silence. "Well, you see, we're just..." Chie started when Youske interuppted. "Do we really have to? I mean you can sometime see things and then they get seared into your brain forever and ever and ever." Yukiko clearly agreed "He does have a point. What do you think Narukami?"

"Maybe some dinner first?" He asks even more nervous than before. "Yeah I could eat." I agree with just as much nervousness in my voice. Chie ruined everything again. "Not until we find him! It's about time the three of you grow a pair! GRRRR! Now GO!" She said while pusing us to the door.

"Hey!"

"Watch it!"

"Why me?!"

We opened the door and my eyes started bleeding again. Kanji was getting it on... with himself. "I have heard enough outta you!" Kanji said on top of his shadow. "This is really awkward." We all say in unison. "W-W-What are you guys doing here?!" He asked just as nervous as us "Well we came here..." Youske started. "To save you..." Yu continued. "And get ya outta here." I finished. "WELL YA SURE AS HELL DON'T SOUND ALL THAT MOTIVATED!" Kanji shouted. "Oopsi Daisey." The shadow pushed Kanji off. "I won't let you interfere" It said while flexing. Suddenly the room was soaked with some kind of liquid. "What the heck is this? Is this supposed to slow us down?" When Chie tried to take a step foward she slipped and took Yukiko with her. "Are you okay?" Yu asked the girls. "Why're you crawling on the floor?" Youske asked. The liquid turned out to be some kind of slime that was pretty slippery and the girls were drenched in it. 'Hot!' I think to myself. Youske having the same dirty mind as me asked Yu "Narukami, you wouldn't happen to have a video camera would you?" Yu sounded disappointed as he said he didn't. "Mike please tell me you have one!" I was just as disappointed "Sadly no." "You bastard!" Kanji said getting up. "Honey why don't you just drop the charade? Isn't it time for you to tell people how you truely feel? I'm everything you wish you could be." The shadow taunted. "You liar!" Kanji argued. "No don't listen to him! Go Jirai-" Youske was cut off as he slipped on th slime taking me and Narukami with him. When Teddie tried to help he slipped through the whole fucking room. "Girls are so scary." I hear the shadow say to Kanji. "Men are much better." 'Holy shit this is getting too weird.' "I vastly prefer men over women." Kanji was pissed. "Hell with that! What makes you think you can say that shit with my face!?" "Why you're me... and I'm you... You do know that, don't you?" Kanji blew the fuck up. "No... Nuh-uh! Now way!" I tried to stop him. "Don't say it!"

"THERE'S NO WAY IN HELL THAT YOU'RE ME!"

The shadow started emitting this black mist. "Hahaha you're me, and there's NO DENYING IT!" It transformed into a creature with a massive body with the male and female gender signs as weapons. Around it were to other creatures. Two strong men both black on one side and white on the other.

"PERSONA!"

We all summoned our Personas and when Chie and Yukiko tried to attack them two strong men there was no effect. They actually liked getting hit with the attacks they used. One of them ran up to Izanagi a squeezed it saying "You're a stud." Yu paniced and shouted "Alright change!" Izanagi was replaced by Rakshasa. Sadly he was subdued as well. Before Yu could change again the other strong man came ujp to me, Youske, and Yu and grabbed our asses. No I'm not kidding that mother fucker GRABBED OUR ASSES AND SAID WE LOOK HOT! But they didn't go for the girls. The one that GRABBED OUR ASSES glared at Yukiko and said the worst possible thing to her "You don't look good in red." Yukiko flipped the fuck out. The other one came up to Chie "Can I help you?" She asked. It put it's hand on her shoulder and nodded. "YOU'RE FREAKING ME OUT!" Chie flipped the fuck out too. Once again the strongmen were impervious to their attacks. When I look back towards Yu he had apparently fused two of his Persona cards and created some kind of snake hydra or something. "The hell am I just sitting hear for?" I say as I get back on my feet not notcing I dropped something. I summoned Ongyo-Ki once again and went for the macho head hancho. "Yo Yu hold that fucker steady!" I ordered. He froze the giant shadow. "Ahh! I'm so cold." it said. I attacked and I attacked but I hardly made a dent in its defense. I then heard Kanji say "Hey that's..." I then realized thathushed dropped the cellphone strap. I turned towards Kanji and said "You made it right?" He kind of panicked. "So? I can make that thing... Still be tough." I smiled "I know. I think it's cute." He realized what I said and said "What?!" "I said its cute." Literally his whole face went red. "You think it's cute? HELLO IT'S SUPER DOOPER CUTE! I WANT EVERYTHING CUTE!" the shadow shouted. Kanji got up and I let him do what a man do what a man had to do. "you're so persistent." The shadow said as kanji moved towards it. "Yep thers no denying it." Kanji said. "Come again?" The shadow asked. "I can't help it. I LOVE STUPID CUTE SHIT!" Kanji then punched the fuck out if his shadow. As it reverted back to normal it said "Someone please except me!" Kanji turned towards me with a red face and said "Look it made me happy, when you called what I made cute and ya didn't make fun of me for it." The shadow got and said "Someone, anyone PLEASE JUST ACCEPT ME!"

"I SAID CUT THAT CRAP OUT!"

"I can't believe something like this is inside of me. You guys have no idea how embarrassing it is." Kanji walked towards his shadow. "It ain't a matter of men or women. I'm just scared shitless of being made fun of. I'm nothing but a big ol' coward who tries to make everyone hate me. You're me and I'm you that ain't some major revelation. Freakin moron." His shadow nodded and was enveloped in a blue aura. It vacant a Persona. Take-Mikazuchi.

Kanji passed out so me and Youske carried him out. We told Kanji we'd explain everything later. Youske decided to take him home. We then parted ways. I once again run into Marie in my way to the bus stop. "Yo what's up Marie?" I ask trying how to get her attention. When she turned around she seemed a little pissed. "Whoa someone's in a bad mood." I say jokingly. Bad move. "Shutupyoustupidjerk!" Marie said really pissed. I flinched. Once I recovered I put a supportive hand on her shoulder and ask her what's wrong. "It's one thing to read my stuff once but it's something entirely different to keep doing it after I aske him to stop." She said a little calmer. "Who?" "Yu Narukami!" I looked confused "Seems kinda harsh for a guy to go against his girlfriend's wishes." She looked up at me and said "Yu? My boyfriend? No way he's nice but I only like him as a friend." I just stare blankly into the distance for about five seconds until she clapped her hands in front of my face. I was brought back to reality and said "Well either way if someone wants you to stop doing something you should stop. I'll talk to Yu the next time I see him." She smiled the first the first since I got there. "Thanks. You're a pretty nice guy you know?" I rub the back of my head in embarrassment and say "I'm no one special." She shook her head and said "No I'm serious I may not have asked yet but you agreed to help me get my memory back and your now trying to help me with this. You say you're not special but I disagree. Especially considering you have a Persona." My eyes widened at the last part. "You know?" She nodded and said "Yep." I laughed and said "Wow all this time I thought I just became good at lying." Now she laughed "Not a chance. Seriously though thanks for everything." She then wrapped her arms around me. I did the same. That's when the bus pulled up. I waved goodbye and headed back to the Inn.

When I got back to my room I shouted at the top of my lungs "YES! SHE'S SINGLE! THANK YOU GOD!" I slept like a king that night.

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** I was right i feel so awkard after that chapter. And I know it may seem like I'm a homophobic but I'm not. Now Michael knows Marie is single and he doesn't have to lie about the whole Persona thing. Before I mention the next chapter I seriously need sone reviews I need to know if you guys are liking this and if not tell me what to do to fix it and I'll do what I can. Anyway, next chapter Michael hangs out with Yu.**

**Next Time: Yu'll Know My Story**


	10. Chapter 10

Chapter 10: Yu'll Know My Story

**I do not own Persona all rights go to Shin Megami Tensei and Atlus**

**I'm gonna skip to where Kanji's back at school just to let ya know. Today Kanji joins the team and Mike hangs with Yu.**

**On with the show!**

* * *

"H-Hi there!"

Kanji had finally come back to school so we could discuss what had happened with him and see if we could get any information out of him. He saw us on the roof of the school and approached us. He was actually pretty polite with his introduction. Chie kinda laughed as he approached us politely "Ha, where'd the manners come from?" Kanji got a little nervous. He rubbed the back of his head and said "Well, um... I didn't know you guys were my upperclassmen." We started laughing as he seemed to be getting more polite by the minute. "Uhh... Thanks a bunch. Though I don't really remember what happened." Yu looked towards Yukiko and they nodded at each other. "There are some things we'd like you to tell us about." Yukiko said confusing Kanji. "First off, who was that boy you met with?" Kanji didn't know who she was talking about until it hit him "I-I really don't know much about him... I mean, I've only met him twice." Kanji answered. "Yeah, but you walked home from school with him. What did you guys talk about?" Kanji was even more nervous with Chie's latest question. "U, well... He just asked stuff like... If anything different happened lately. I dunno where my head was at... When I came to my senses, I blurted out that I wanted to see him again." He said with a slight blush on his face. "To a guy." Chie said. "You make it sound like it's weird for guys to hang out with other guys. I tell guys all the time that I wanna see them again." I finally say somehting. Everyone just seemed to ignore me. ", uh... I don't really get it myself. Girls are so loud and obnoxious, so, y'know... I really don't like dealing with 'em. Guys are a lot more laid-back. S-So uh, I started thinking... What if I'm the type who never gets interested in girls? And I couldn't accept that, so I just kep spinning around and around in my head." Kanji revealed to us. "Well, I can understand the part about feeling more relaxed around dudes."Youske said as I nod in agreement. I mean really who doesen't feel more relaxed about being around the same gender? "How are you feeling?" Yu asked concerned. "I'm fine now. I mean it was all in my head, when y'get down to it. I was the one shutting out that stuff." Kanji said with a little more enthusiasm. We got a little confused because Kanji actually sounded wise. "So, uh... Our family's ran a textile shop for generations... Oh yeah, you already knew that. My parents are kinda weird... They say stuff like 'Dyes are one with the universe,' and 'Cloth is alive.' That's the kinda house I grew up in. So I've been interested in sewing and stuff since I was a kid. But the second I say stuff like that, people look at me funny. Girls make fun of me, the people in the neighborhood treat me like some zoo animal, so I was sick of everything. And when I got to my senses... I was running wild. Shit, what is with me today? I'm going on and on about myself. Forget all that. Man, I must look really lame right now. "You kidding me dude? You're actually a pretty cool guy." I say with a smile. "Nah, I doubt it." Kanji disagreed. "Haha... I've never talked about any of this stuff before. Guess I never had anyone t tell it to. I guess I wasn't really afraid of girls. I was just scared of people in general. But all that's behind me." He said with a smile. "Wow, I'm surprised... You're a good kid." Chie said suprised at his life story. Needless to say I was too. I mean looks really can be decieving. "D-Don't call me a good kid." Kanji said really embarressed. "Hahaha, no needto get embarresssed. You're a big guy you can take it." Youske said humorlously. Kanji was not amused. We finally proceeded to ask him if he could remember anything after he chased us the second time. He just said he had a feeling that someone came to his house and he remembered a dark entrance. We all assumed that it was a TV. He then told us that when the cops questioned him he said that he told them everything that he just told us and they looked at him like he was crazy. "So, like... Are you guys playing detective or somethin'? Kanji asked us. "Mmm, well, something like that." Chie answered. Kanji got excited "Anything I can do to help? If there's some bastard out ther who put me through this, I ain't gonna rest until I make 'em pay." Now Youske was excited at the fact that he wanted in on the action. "Seriously? Awesome! You'd make a great addition to our team." I obviously agreed "Yeah a tough guy like you with us and we'll have no problem taking out our enemies." We all looked at Yu. "Whaddya say, Leader?" Youske asks his parner. "Of course he can." Yu confirmed. "Thank you, Sir! I'll put my life on the line for you guys! I'll do my best!" Kanji said with much determination in his voice. With that all said and done we took him toour HQ. When we discussed the case and found out nothing new Kanji confirmed our theory on how all of the victims had been broadcasted on TV before they were thrown into the TV. We then decided to take him to the other side to get him fitted for his uniform.

"Oh yeah... Now that you mention it, I do kinda remember this thing... Didn't think it was a bear, though. Hey why IS it a bear?" Kanji asked regardong Teddie's existance. "Dunno." Youske said. "Me neither. I've been wondering too." Teddie said sadly. "I-It's kinda cute... M-Mind if I pet you?" Kanji pleaded. "No touching allowed, Mister." Teddie said back to his usual self. "Wha-? Hey don't give me any lip, bear!" Kanji ordered. "Uhh... By the way, I been wondering. You were kidnapped too, right, Michael?" Kanji asked me curious about what happened with me. "Yeah it was just before you were." I respond. "So like, that means you came out to everyone too?" Now I was a bit miffed. "W-Wha-?" I stutter "What was it like for Mich-" He didn't get to finish seeing as how I hit him on the head. "What the hell man?!" He shouted. "Whoops my bad meant to hit ya a little softer than that. Sorry bro." I apologize. "Eh, whatever." He said. "Oh yeah! Here's a present form me, Kanji! It's to celebrate you joining the team!" Teddie said handing him a pair of glasses. I smirk. "Ah, so these are the glasses you guys told me about." Kanji said admiring the glasses. "Well what are ya waiting for put 'em on." I order. "Huh? S-Sure... But hang on, aren't these different from everyone else's?" He asked putting on the gag glasses that the guys made me wear my first day on the job. I wasn't gonna be the only idiot to fall for the trick. Kanji was less amused then I was that day. We all fell to the floor laughing. Cause when you look like Kanji and wear those glasses it's a crime not to laugh. "I had a normal pair ready for you. But Mikey insisted on this one. He wouldn't budge!" Kanji threw the glasses back in Teddie's face. "Yeah, real funny, ya smartass!" Now Ted was pissed "Wh-Why are you taking it out on me!?" Kanji then grabbed what was in Teddie's hand. "Gimme that!" He demended. Fourtunetly for us it was the gag glasses he put on again. He was red but not with embarressment but furiousness. We all laughed even harder. "You took my spare pair... Kanji, you must really like those!" Kanji had had enough of this shit he took off the glasses and fucking chucked those fuckers to the other side of the TV world. 'HAHAHAHAHAHA! I'll be damned if I'm gonna be the only one to wear that shit!" I say trying to stand back up. "This is the real one. It wasn't easy getting it to you." Teddie said handing him a pair of black sunglasses. "Why the hell did you bother making a spare pair if it's more useless crap!? Dammit! I'll get you guys for this someday!" Kanji said vowing revenge as I did. "I wouldn't call them useless. I mean we all had a good laugh. Well everyone minus you of course. Come on man, think of it as an initiation." I say puttting my arm around his shoulder still laughing. He shoved me off and said "Fuck you!"

When we left the TV world I called out to Yu. He turned around and asked what I wanted. I told him to follw me to the flood plain. After about twenty minutes of walking I decided to tell him everything I told Marie about my family and my mom's death. He put a hand on my shoulder and said "That's rough buddy. I can't imagine how you must feel. Do you think you'll ever go back home?" I shrug and say "I don't know man. My family's just to crazy right now. If I go back I'll get the lecture of a lifetime from my dad and grandmother and I'll have the world's biggest punishment on my ass." I say sadly. "Well that's why you need to go back eventually." I was confused. "If your family's so crazy and out of control they need a sane person like you to fix it." I mull it over in my head before saying "Maybe you're right. I'll think about it and get back to ya man." He patted the hand on my shoulder and we went off in opposite directions.

When I got back to the inn I say to myself "Someone sane like me huh? He may have a point."

* * *

**Not my best work but it's something to keep you guys going for a while. Even though I'll probably start the next chapter as soon as I post this one. Next time the boys go for their licenses and travel to Okina City.**

**Next Time: Operation: Up close and Personal**


	11. Chapter 11

Chapter 11: Operation:Up Close and Personal

**I do not own Persona all rights go to Shin Megami Tensei and Atlus**

**Time for a Golden moment. The Motorcycle moment. I've been waiting for this.**

**On with the show!**

* * *

It had been a few days since Kanji joined the team and I told Yu about my life. We had talked about how all of us minus Kanji were in the same group for the school campout coming up soon. The guys and I also found out that we were apperently slaves for the school and we're gonna be picking up fucking TRASH off of the mountain. But the girls cooking for us didn't sound that bad. I had been thinking over what Yu had told me about my family needing someone like me to keep them from falling apart. I was sitting at my desk thinking about it when Youske walked up to me and Narukami. "Hey, guess what I just heard!" He asked us excited about something. I took a crack at it and said "They found a cure for cancer!?" He looked at me kind of angry and said "No!" He calmed down and continued "I heard that when they're sitting in back of you, it's like a squeeze play!"Yu and I were confused "Dude are you talking about sex or something? Cause I don't feel comfortable talking about sex with two dudes." He was pissed again "No stupid! Come on you guys know what I mean." Now I was pissed "Clearly we don't! So tell us what you're putting down so we can pick it up and move on with our lives!" Youske realized what he forgot to mention "Sorry I got ahead of myself. What I mean is..." He looked around and motioned us to move closer "I'm talking about how, when there's a girl sitting behind you on a motorcycle, they press right up against your back." Youske said in a giddy tone. "What does?" Yu asked Youske. "Look, don't make me spell it out! Anyway. I think motorcycles are the hot new thing for guys now. Girls like guys who spend time outdoors, right? So I got us this. Wanna get your license with me, boys?" He layed out a manual for getting a motorcyle license. "Well I can't afford anything bigger than a scooter on my budget, but at least that'll get us to new places. Don't you think we deserve that much, seeing as how we're investigating the case?" There was a fire in Youske's eyes that showed us he was dead serious on getting a motorcycle license. Then Kanji came into the room "'Sup guys. Hey, about the camping trip... You guys busy right now?" He asked us. "Kinda, we're talking about motorcycles" Youske answered happily. "Motorcycles? You gonna stomp a gang? If you're bringin' a war, I'll help! Kanji said being a bit too excited about fighting a gang. 'I'm not totally against the idea though.' I think to myself. Youske did not share Knji's enthusiasm. "No, we're not 'bringing a war.' What does that mean, anyway? We're just talking about getting motorcycle licenses." Kanji looked confused "Licenses? You guys don't have yours?" Youske was shocked. "Huh? No way... Don't tell me you already..." He was cut off by Kanji saying "Nah. I'm still 15 and all." 'He's fucking 15 he looks at least 17 with his fucking height!' I think "Then why'd you say it like that!?" Youske asks pissed again. "Man... that reminds me, I'm surprised you picked a fight with that biker gang. How'd you chase after them?" He asks Kanji "Eh, a bike's all I need for that." He answered nonchalantly. I spoke up "You used a regular bike to keep up with a gang using MOTORbikes? How strong are you're fucking legs dude!?" He shrugged. "Well, in any case, we can't let you in on our 'up close and personal' plan" Youske told Kanji bluntly "'Up close and personal'!? What's that mean!?" Kanji asked a little disappointed. "Keep it down! Like I was telling these guys, what a guy needs nowadays to be a big man is first a motorcycle, and then..." He paused. "And then!?"

"A girlfriend." Youske finished

"Tell me more." Yu ACTUALLY pleaded. "I'm actually pretty interested now. Go on." I agree. Youske was beaming with happiness. "Now those are my partners! Alright, then..." 'When did I become part of Youske's partner possy? Oh well I'm not complaining.' "You guys gonna get licensed for the big stuff? I know I came in late here, but if you're talkin' about takin' a girl on a bike, ya gotta be seatin' two, man. That ain't allowed on a scooter." That put a damper on Youske's plan. "I forgot about that."

"..."

"Shut up! This'll all work out! As long as we have motorcycles, the girls will come running! That's all we the advantage we'll need! Now listen carefully. The reason we don't have girlfriends is because we're stuck here in this town, waiting to meet someone! This place is so tiny, it's no wonder we can't find one. It doesn't matter if it's only a scooter. Some kind I motorcycle is just the ticket for us to get some chicks! Then, later on, we can get a bigger motorcycle... and that's when the'ip close and personal' plan really starts!" Honesty that doesn't sound like a bad plan. "Up close and personal..." Kanji repeated. "Plus, you knothe you, me, and Mike have more of a city boy thing going on. If we're serious about this, we've gotta expand our horizons to a bigger town. We gotta take the initiative! There's no time to wait for a train that only leaves every so often each day! We'll roar up on our motorcycles like te basasses weaware, and when the chicks come up, we'll play it cool. The pheromones dripping off of us will bring them around in no time." "F-Feral... zone?" Kanji repeated. "No! We're not going to a cat house, you idiot. I'm talking about PHEROMONES! My research shows that a motorcycle is the number one surefire way to increase a man's pheromones!" Kanji repeated pheromones in a weird tone. "Dude... That's how a perv would react." Youske stated. "What did you say!? Fine! Then I'm in too! Get ready for Kanji Tatsumi to show his manhood to these chicks!" Kanji shouted. "That can be taken multiple ways. And one of them is illegal." I mention. "I already told you you can't! Anyway don't tell anyone about this, got it? If other guys try to copy us it'll end up diluting out pheromones. "So, dude, make sure you talk to your uncle about getting a license, okay?" Youske said to Yu. "Got it!" Kanji said confidently. "Not you! I don't even know your uncle! I'm serious about this. If we have motorcycles we can go all over. It'll be fun!" Yu and I nodded confirming to get our licenses. "Man... Somewhere out there, the best days of our youth are ahead of us!" Youske said with anxiousness. "Yeah! I'm with you on that one!" Kanji shouted.

Later that night in my room Youske texted me. The text read "Yu's in! It's settled we're getting motorcycle licenses! Start studying!" I did as he said and started studying. I then remembered something "How am I gonna pay for a motorcycle?" I then remembered my bank account had more than enough cash not just for a scooter but an actual motorcycle! "That's how."

The next day me and the guys went to get our licenses as soon as school ended. Sure enough we passed. "Hehe, we passed on the first try. Just like we planned!" Youske said as we all participated in a three way high five. "Actually it was pretty easy. I might've studied a little too hard." We then noticed someone at the gas station across the street. He had short black hair, a blue shirt with a loose tie hanging from it, black pants and shoes, and he wore a stoic look on his face. "Hi are you on duty?" Youske asked the man. 'Must be a cop. Do they know him? He looks somewhat like Yu. Is this his uncle?' I ponder in my head. "We just stopped to get gas. And, well to take care of some minor business." He looked towards me "I don't believe we've met. I'm detective Ryotaro Dojima. I'm Yu's uncle." I shook his hand. He had some fucking grip. "Nice to meet you sir. I'm Michael Williams." I introduce myself. "Where'd you guys go?" Dojima asked us. "Guess." Yu said sounding like a little kid. "You're starting to sound like Nanako. If you're trying to test my detective skills, then... Let's see given that triumphant look on your face... Hmm. I give up. Where?" We fell to the ground anime style. 'Some detective!' "I can tell what a suspects thinking when he's lying, but when it comes to where you guys might go..." "Our motorcycle licenses! We went together and got 'en in one try!" Youske said unable to contain his excitement any longer. The detective was surprised "Already!?" Yu flashed his license. "I know it's just a written test to get a scooter license, but still I wasn't expect you to pass so soon. Oh well. Looks like I'd better think of a way to convince my sister." Dojima hinted his approval. "So you're okay with this?" Yu asked his uncle a little surprised. "I can't say no now that you've gotten your license. Your enthusiasm is catching." Youske started celebrating. "Yes! You got the okay! I need to head home and read through the catalogue! Well see ya tomorrow!" Then he was gone. I wasn't to far behind. Before I left another person called for me to wait. I stopped and turned to see a man in his mid twenties run up to me. He had messy black hair and wire an all blue suit with a red tie. "You dropped this." He handed me my license which I had appatently dropped. "Thanks man I owe ya." I thanked the man "No problem. I'm Adachi by the way Dojima's sla- er, I mean his partner." I shook his hand and introduced myself "Michael Williams. Nice to meet ya." I then heard Dojima call for Adachi. "Sounds like you're master calls. Thanks again Adachi! See ya around!" I say just barely getting on the bus.

The next couple of days went by in a flash. Soon after we got our licenses we had to change to our summer uniforms for school. Youske called me after school saying that we're going to Okina City. I told him I'd meet them after I took care of one last thing. Over the past few days I had exchanged most of my American cash for yen to properly pay for a motorcycle. I also took it upon myself to get a few part time jobs. I made some more cash and bought a few more thing.

I already knew how to get to Okina City. I printed the directions a few nights ago. I saw Youske and the guys waiting for me. Kanji actually looked pretty ridiculous riding around on a bike while the others rode a scooter. Being me I had to make an entrance so I cranked up the radio on my bike. It was playing Gives You Hell by All-American Rejects. Which ironically what Youske was feeling like. Hell. Absolute hell. Because when he saw me pull up I wasn't riding a scooter. I was riding the most badass motorcycle you can think of. Not only that but inswith out of my uniform and wore a leather jacket and a red helmet to make me look like een more of a first his jaw was down in the cement. "Where the hell did you get that!?" Youske asked. "I bought it what do ya think?" I remark snidely. "Damn dude that's one sweet ride!" Kanji says admiring my motorcycle. "Thanks dude. So are you guys ready to get this 'up close and personal' plan started?" Youske looked down "It's been started for over an hour. Not a single girl came up to us." I face palm "Well there's your problem you're waiting for the girls to come to you. When in all actuality you have to go up to the girls. If you wait for the girls you start to reek of desperation." Yu glared at Youske "I fucking told you!" He nearly shouted. "Okay, okay no need to rub it in. Alright then we'll all spread out and after an hour we'll return here with our results." We all nodded.

It didn't take me half an hour to run into someone. That someone was Marie. "Marie? What are you doing in Okina City?" I ask her. She turned around and said "Oh hey Michael. The Nose sent me out on an errand and I have no way to get back to that room until the train arrives in two hours." I was celebrating inside 'This is my chance! And you bet your ass I'm taking it!' "Well I just got a motorcycle and I'd be more than happy to give you a lift back to Inaba." She was confused. "Motor... Cycle?" She said seeming to be trying to pronounce the word. I honestly found that a little cute. "Yeah we'll be back in less than half an hour. Whaddya say?" She nodded very happily and said "Yeah that sounds great." As I walked Marie to my bike the guys, mostly Youske, just stared at me. I got on my back and Marie followed sitting behind me. I took this not just as an opportunity to have to hold onto me but as an opportunity to fuck with Youske. "Hang on tight okay." I told Marie. She did so. As I drove off with Marie tightly holding onto me I flipped them off rubbing it in their faces that I have the hottest girl in the world holding onto me.

I purposely took a few sharp turns to make Marie hold me tighter. I could feel her look up at me and later relax her head on my back. When we made it to Inaba she told me to take off my helmet for some reason. I happily obliged. That's when I got another kiss on the cheek from her. "Seeya. And thanks." She said walking the rest of the way to her house. Once she was out of sight I drove back to the inn.

I went ino my room got on my knees in a victorious pose and shouted "YES! YES! YES! YES! THANK YOU GOD! I DON'T KNOW WHY YOU'RE TREATING ME SO GOOD NUT PLEASE DON'T STOP!"

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**Much better and longer than the last chapter. I'm getting better and better with these Michael and Marie scenes. What do you think? Leave a review and let me know. Next time we go camping.**

**Next Time: The Worst Camping Trip Ever**


	12. Chapter 12

Chapter 12: The Worst Camping Trip Ever

**I do not own Persona all rights go to Shin Megami Tensei and Atlus**

**It's time to go camping! Why am I not excited? Oh well...**

**On with the show!**

* * *

It was the day before the school campout, and I was trying to find someway out of it. 'Calling in sick won't work I've gotta think of something else. ARGH dammit! Why can't I think of an excuse to get out of this!?' As you can see I got shit. Yu approached my desk "Hey, we're all going to Junes to get stuff for the camping trip tomorrow wanna come?" He asks me. "Pass, I'm gonna be to busy thinking of a way to get out of the trip." He shrugged and said "Okay. See ya tomorrow." The sad part is, he's probably right.

The next day we all got on the bus to go to the camping site. As the girls said we spent all morning picking up trash off the goddamn moutain. While I did find some cash there was some fucked up shit that these people threw out. SERIOUSLY WHO IN THE NAME OF BUTT FUCK THROWS A GODDAMN CONDOM ON A FUCKING MOUNTAIN!? FOR THAT MATTER WHO HAS SEX ON A FUCKING MOUNTAIN!? It was a very torturous morning for us. Later that evening the girls started cooking curry as the guys told me. "Ugh, picking up all that trash was murder on my back... I can't believe someone threw away an entire bike. Dammit, litterers should have to deal with their own garbage." Youske said in severe pain. "AT LEAST YOU DIDN'T FIND A FUCKING CONDOM!" I shout still pissed I even came across that fucking thing. "Anyways, time for dinner! Man I'm starvin'." Youske said forgetting about his aching back. "Dude, the girls cooked just for us! Not that I expect much outta Chie, but Yukiko's got the full tradition of the Amagi Inn behind her food! You know it's gonna be outta this world!" Yu suddenly looked disgusted "You guys can have mine." Youske and I were confused. "Huh? Why so generous all of a sudden? It's okay, man. Just enjoy!" Youske said ready to dig in before the girls finished. We waited about three more minutes until the girls came over with the chow. Man was I hungry! "Oh man, here it comes!" Youske said in a ready to eat position. "Uhhh, sorry for the wait. Um..." Chie said nervously. "We... put a lot of love into it." Chie finished "Whoa, really? That's kinda cliched, but still awesome! Okay then chow time!" Youske eagerly remarked. But as soon as Youske took a bite into that curry he was out like a light. The girls screamed as Yu and I helped him up. "What happened?" Yu asked Youske coming to his senses. "Mus..." Youske tried to say. "Mosquitoes?" Yu tried to guess what Youske was trying to say. "W-W-W..." Youske still couldn't speak. "Worms?" I now guess. "Mosquitoes and worms?" Yukiko repeated our guesses. "I don't remember putting any of that in the curry." Chie said "Thank goodness! I was afraid something might have fell in." Yukiko said laughing. Yu gave Youske a drink to help him come back to reality. He gagged even more. "Was the curry to spicy?" Yu asked trying to figure out what just happened. "You were gonna make it mild, right Chie?" Yukiko asked. "Um yeah. But if you don't trust me, you guys can just taste some yourself." Chie responded. "Good idea why don't you take a bite Narukami." Yukiko asked our leader. "Me?" Yu could barely look at the stuff. I mean our fearless leader's hand is shaking because of curry. "Well, here goes nothin'." Yu met the same fate as Youske. That's when I took a stand. "Oh come on! You guys are overreacting. I mean how bad could it be?" I soon saw a white light at the end of a tunnel. When we all came to The first thing Youske shouted was "WHAT THE HELL!? WHAT WERE YOU THINKING PUTTING THAT ON A PLATE CALLING IT-" That's when he started couging again. "I guess we should have taste tested it." Yukiko said ignoring Youske ranting. "I was to terrified to do it myself." Chie said. "So you have us tast that poison to see if it would work?" I start yelling. "Normally is either really spicy or really mild. But that's not even food!" Youske continues. "It's a whole new creation." Yu said absolutely terrified at the very thought of the curry. "It's gritty, and slimy, and mushy all at the same time! No matter whhat you do to it it'll still be totally gross!" Youske went on. "We had some trouble trying to get it to mix together." Yukiko said not showing any remorse for trying to kill us. "So we stirred in a little love to help out." Chie said with a little remorse. "WHAT KIND OF LOVE IS THAT!?" Youske shouted. They then went on to tell us that they put so much fucked up shit that even I knew wasn't supposed to be in there. Shit like seafood, ice cream, coffee, and everything in between. "I am so sorry." "Please try to forgive us." The girls apologized. "AWW MAN! Now what? Our team isn't gonna have anything to eat for the whole camping trip! I mean if it was remotely edible that's one thing. But I'm not taking another bite of this, Mystery Food X!" Youske said sternly. "Something smells good!" Chie said activating her carnivoristic insticts. That's when we looked over and sa- HOLY SHIT IT'S A HAIRLESS BEAR! Oh no wait it's just a girl... I think. "Hanako!" Youske said very scared of the big girl. "I don't have any choice. And besides she owes me considering what she did to my motorcycle." I looked cerfuzled as shit. Yu could see me confusion said he'd tell me later. "H-Hey... Uh, Hanako? You... Wouldn't happen to have any extra curry left, huh?" Youske asked. "C'mon, give us some! We're begging you! We're starving to death here!" He begged. "No way." Hanako replied in a bitchy tone. "I'm on a diet right now, so this is all that I made. It has to last me." "Judging by how huge you are the diet ain't working with ya." I mutter so she doesn't hear me. "All that you made? It's like a bucketfull." We then heard Morooka tell us it was time for bed he also said something about the teachers having some booze. "You guys are gonna pay for this." Youske vowed revenge. The girls laughed before saying goodnight.

When we got to our tent we were welcomed by Kanji. "Dammit I'm so hungry. And how the hell did you end up here?" Youske asked curious as to why a FUCKING FRESHMAN was in there tent. "My teach threatened to hold me back a year if I didn't show. And the freshmen tent is all quiet, like someone died." Kanji answered. "Well if you were in there with 'em, I'm not suprised." Youske said still pissed about the curry incident. "Is it just you guys in this tent?" Kanji asked looking around the near empty tent. "The other guys called in sick. Smart move." 'SON OF A BITCH! ALL OF THOSE FUCKERS CALLED IN SICK AND THEY LET THEM SKIP THIS SHIT!? IF IT WERE ME SAYING I WAS SICK THEY'D FORCE ME TO GO. GODDAMMIT!' I shout in my mind. "So it's okay if I hang out here?" Kanji asked to stay. "Sure by all means." I say welcoming him aboard the S.S. Idiot. "Hey you're a stand-up guy, Michael." He compliments my generousity. 'Why does everyone seem to think I'm so cool here?' I wonder. "Don't worry I won't make any trouble for you. They won't catch me unless we raise a ruckus." Youske sighed "Alright, alright. You can sleep over there." He then pointed to a spot that had a fuccking rock under it. "Dude there's a huge rock under there. How am I supposed to sleep? It's gonna hurt like hell." Kanji complained. "Pipe down... Didn't you say you weren't gonna make any noise?" Youske asked in annoyance "Yo Youske, can't you go just a little further back?" Kanji pleaded. "Nope. There's a slope just pass here. I'd roll down the hill in my sleep. If you don't like it here, go back to the first-year tent." Youske said laying down the law. I looked towards Yu "Hey you told me you were gonna explain what happened between Youske and that Hanko chick. What happened?" They all looked towrds me. Youske had a very pissed look on his face. "Well after you ditched us-" "After I won." I cut him off rubbing in his face that I actually got to do the plan before any of them. "Whatever. After you left Kanji had gotten a number from a hooker and Yu got a number from a girl who gave him her roid monkey boyfrien'd number." I stopped him there "Kanji got a hookers number?" I ask. They all nod. "And as it turned out, I somehow got Hanako's number. When I accidently asked her out on a motorcycle date she showed up, jumped on my bike and destroyed it." Youske finished. "HAHAHAHAHAHAHA! That just made my fucking day!" I say holding on to my sides. "Dude just shut up and let's all go to sleep." And so we did.

Or at least we tried. "Kanji, don't you have more space on your side?" Youske asked. "Man, I can't sleep over there, or my backs gonna break." Kanji argued. "Oh... okay." Youske accepted. "This rock ain't that bad Kanji. Not a bad pillow if ya ask me." I say as I lay my head on the suprisingly comfortable rock. "Uh... hey." "Yeah" "Why'd you come to this tent?" Youske asked Kanji nervous for some reason. "Huh? I already told you. "Geez... 's wrong with you?" Kanji answers then asking Youske a question. "This is as good a time as any, so... I-I want you to be honest with us." "Uh... okay?" "A-Are you really... you know?"

'OH MY GOD! HE'S ASKING HIM IF HE'S REALLY GAY!'

"Am I really what?" Kanji asked a little mad. "What I mean is, us... Are we gonna be safe alone with you?" Youske said getting to the point. Kanji stood up. And he was PISSED! "Wh-Wh- What the hell's that supposed to mean!? I-I already told yu guys I'm not like that!" The rest of us stood up. "W-Well then why are you all hot and bothered about it!? That's just more suspicious!" Youske said "Hell no! We settled this already, dammit! Right now, I'm... Well... How do I put it? Uh..." Kanji pondered how to say he wasn't gay. "Oh God, don't trail off like that! You're freaking me out!" Youske getting scared. "I'm trying to tell you that I have no problem being around girls now!" Kanji said. "Can you prove it!?" Youske asked. "P-Prove it?" "Cause if you can't, we're gonna be stuck in here all night half scared to death." Youske explained. "Speak for yourself." I argue. "Tch... To hell with this. If that's what you really think of me I'M GONNA GO SLEEP WITH THE GIRLS! THEY GOT MORE BALLS THAN YOU ANYWAY!" Kanji exploded. I tried to stop him but Yu actually encouraged him to do it. With nothing more than a shout he was gone. "What a putz. I declare myself not responsible for anything that happens." Youske announced causing me to slap my forehead.

It wasn't long later when we heard something outside. "Hey... Are you guys still up?" 'Oh hell no!' I shout in my head knowing who's outside. Youske knew as well "What are you doing here!? This is the guys' side!" "Let us in!" Chie demanded. "Don't be ridiculous! If King Moron finds out, we'll all be expelled for sure! Go back to your tent!" Youske retorted. "We can't!" Chie revealled. I then heard King Morons voice he sounded hammered as FUCK! "Are there any rooten apples out and about!? Any indecent students out there?" He slurred. "Shit! Just get in before he sees you!" I told the girls to get in. We asked them why they were here. They nervously told us that Kanji had snuck into there tent and just passed out. 'He really went through with it? Man, and I thought I had balls.' I think admiring Kanji's valor. Even if he did get knocked out. We heard King Moron again. "Listen up! Beng insolent and dbeing indecent are very different things!" He yelled, his voice getting closer to us. "It's him! He's right outside!" Youske said turning to Yu. "H-Hey, turn the light off!" He demanded. I could feel King Moron getting closer to our tent. 'We're so fucked.' He stopped right in front of the tent. "Hey, are you three in there? Answer me!" He yelled. "We're not here." 'Dammit Yu!' "Huh? Ahhh, so you're in there... Are Hanamura and Williams already asleep?" I gulp. "Yessir! Fast asleep, sir!" 'Dammit Youske!' Lucky King Moron was drunk off his ass so he bought it. He left and with that done we decided to let the girls stay. We made a barrier between the guys and the girls using our belongings. No one slept well that night.

The next day we all headed to the river. Youske thought that now was a good a time as any for a swim. He had told me to bring a suit so I slung that over my shoulder. "Looks like we're the only ones here." Youske announced. He looked toward Kanji with a weird look on his face. "Hey, whoa! What's up? You look spent." Youske noticed Kanji's expression. "Couldn't you sleep last night?" Yu asked. "HEY, I DIDN'T SLEEP WITH ANYONE! WHY WOULD YOU EVEN SAY THAT!?" Kanji panicked. "Uh... He didn't. No one did." I say bluntly. Kanji realized what he had said "Uh, I mean... D-Don't worry about me." He said faking a laugh. "Aww come on, it won't be any fun if I'm the only one who goes swimming." I slapped the back of his head "Dumbass, me and Narukami are swimming to. Right Yu?" He nodded. Youske looked towards the girls hinting he wanted them to go swimming too. "Don't you look at me! Listen man, if you wanna go swimming go swimming with the guys!" Chie demanded crossing her arms. "Yeah, but, ya kinda owe me one." Youske reminded her. Chie growled a bit and said "Yeah, ... Do you you. Oh wait! W-We didn't bring our swimsuits, did we Yukiko?" Chie said trying to get out of this. "No, we plain forgot. Too bad." Youske then pulled out two swimsuits from behind his back. "No problem! From Junes's summer line. I'm sure they'll fit you perfectly." We we're all weirded out. "Is that what you left to go get at Junes?" Yu asked. "Oh, dude, that is messed up." Kanji agreed. "That's just a whole new level of weird dude. Where the hell were you even keeping those? For that matter how did you keep them hidden from us?" I asked curious as to how the fuck he hid those from us. All the guys, minus Kanji, had changed into out suits. Youske wore a pair of red trunks, Yu wore a pair of black trunks with an odd design on it, while I wore a pair red trunks WITH a compression shirt on considering I don't want to be the cause of the conversation regarding the scars on my chest. The girls went out into the woods to change while we waited. "Come on! They're taking forever. How far in the woods did they go to change?" Youske asked tired of waiting. "Hey man those trunks are awesome!" Kanji said admiring Yu's trunks. "They're cool aren't they?" Yu asked all smug. "Yeah totally!" Kanji said. He turned to me and asked "But Mike why're you whering a shirt?" I flinched and quickly answered "U-U-Uhh well... I-I'm er... uncomfortable with my body. Yeah that's it." Youske turned to me and said "Dude are you kidding me? You've got more muscle than Kanji. Why would you be uncomfortable with that?" Before I could answer the girls came back saving, my ass. "Sorry for the wait." We heard Chie say. The girls looked great. Chie wore a multi colored stripped tob with green short shorts. And Yukikowore a white top with a white skirt. "Whoa!" We all said in unison. "Hey, don't just stand there with your mouths gapping! This is really embarassing!" Chie said really fucking nervously. "Yeah, either look away or say something!" Yukiko said just as nervous as Chie. "You both look really good in those." Yu said. I nodded and said "Totally! You two look great." Chie gasped and said "What the hell!? Don't say that!" Chie shouted "Okay, I've heard enough!" Yukiko agreed. "Damn! I knew you'd look good, but not that good. I mean you still look like little girls, but I'm sure someday when you finally grow up you'll be pretty hot." He turned to me and Yu "Huh, you agree guys?" We nodded and said in unison "Yeah definitely." The girls were pissed for some reason. "Now I'm really pissed off!" "Me too!" They charged us and pushed us into the water. WHICH WAS FUCKING FREEZING! Then I guess Yukiko loved the rush of pushing someone into freezing cold water because she pushed Kanji in with us. For some reason there was a trail of blood. "YOU DIDN'T HAVE TO TOSS US IN LIKE THAT YA KNOW!" Youske shouted. "WHY DO YOU CARE? YOU WERE GOING IN ANYWAY!" Chie shouted down to us. We then heard something upstream. It sounded like a man was...

"EW WHAT'S THAT FLOATIN' DOWN THE RIVER!?"

...

'Oh god no.'

We found ourselves swimming in King Moron's vomit.

We got the fuck outta dodge and just went back. "Do I smell like puke?" Kanji asked smelling his jacket. "Please don't talk about it." Yu begged. "Once again, I think I lost something important today." Youske said. "I think that's your self-esteem bro. Ugh, even if we took a million showers we'll still have the stench on us!" I say disgusted at the fact I swam in fucking vomit. "I'm just glad we found out before WE went in." Chie said relieved. That's when we saw Hanako. "WHOA!" Kanji gasped. She looked right at Kanji. "Whoa! What is this!?" Chie asked "Is she... going to..." Yukiko started. "Confess her love for him!?" Youske asked finishing Yukiko's sentence. "Think so." Yu answered. "Yep not a doubt in my mind. Have fun Kanji." I pat him on the back and the rest of us hid behind a tree. Hanako walked closer to Kanji. "U-U-Uh... Hey. H-H-How's it goin'?" He asked Hanako. "Well, I... You see guys like yourself they..." We were getting eager and Kanji was freaking the fuck out. "... They jut aren't my tipe dude. Sorry that I have to dump ya."

"WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAT!?"

'Ohh shut down.'

"You should forget about last night. It never happened." Hanako said walking away. Kanji's mouth kept getting wider and wider. He fell to his hands and knees.

"YOU HAVE GOTTA BE KIDDING ME!"

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**Another chapter down. Jesus Christ what could've been done in a few minutes took two fucking days. Sometimes I just hate my computer. Anyway sucks for Kanji, I guess. Next chapter the team discusses who might be targeted next.**

**Next Time: The Depressing Celebrity**


	13. Chapter 13

Chapter 13: The Depressing Celebrity

**I do not own Persona all rights go to Shin Megami Tensei and Atlus**

**Today we find out who might be targeted next.**

**On with the show!**

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After the school campout I spent most of my days trying to get the smell of vomit off of me. "Why won't this stench come off!?" Turns out I was right when I said that a million showers will never make me clean. Over the next few days I had seen a report on some idol named Rise Kujikawa. I think that I had seen her on a commercial on my way to town. Something about getting slimmed down or something. It turns out that she was going on hiatus for a while to recover from the idol life. It aslo seems that she was coming to live with some relatives in Inaba. Her relatives apparently run a tofu store in this small town. Who'd have thought? "If she's coming to Inaba where all this crap is happening we might need to keep an eye on her." I proceeded to take another shower.

On my way to school the next day I noticed there was a lot of noise at the shopping district. I saw Kanji and approached him. "Hey what's up Kanji?" He noticed me and said "Oh hey Mike. Well I'm barely up." He said yawning. "What's with all these people in the shopping district? I didn't even know Inaba had this many people living here." He shrugged and said "I don't know. But we should get goin we're gonna be late if we wait here." As we walked down the crowded streets I noticed the most amount of people we're at a place called "Marukyu Tofu" and couldn't help but think that this has to do with the whole Rise coming to Inaba thing.

The others we're talking when Kanji and I walked in. "Yo." Kanji greeted. "Hey, there he is. You've been coming to school pretty often lately. What's up?" Chie asked Kanji. "It's this annoying thing called the mandatory attendance policy." Kanji answered. "But man, seeing you here kinda reminds me of the school campout..." Youske said brining up the painful memories we had about Mystery Food X and swimming in vomit. "I thought we were all gonna forget about what happened." Kanji reminded Youske. "Oh... Sorry." He apologized. Kanji sighed "Eh, whatever. So hey you guys see the news?" Kanji asked us. "News? Oh, that stuff about Rise Kujikawa taking a break from showbiz? I wonder why. She was just getting popular lately." Chie wondered. "Just goes to show that being an idol is tough work." Youske said. "Rise is pretty great." Yu said. I was rather suprised to hear that Yu paid attention to stuff like that. "You think so too? It hasn't been long since her debut, but at this rate she'll be atop-class idol in no time. To be honest, I'm a fan too! She's such a cutie pie!" Youske revealed. "A cutie pie? What are you 80?" Chie said. It is kinda weird for a teenage to say cutie pie. Just a little. "But I think she used to live around here, so she must have a lot of local fans." Chie continued. "The news said she's going to her grandmother's tofu shop, right? Do they mean Marukyu?" Yukiko asked. "Marukyu?" Youske repeated. "Marukyu Tofu. Our inn was serving their tofu until recently." Yukiko explained. "Oh, that place in the shopping district! I pass by it all the time." Youske said realizing what she was talking about. "The shop looked crowed when Kanji and I passed earlier this morning. Usually there are only a few people but today there were a lot more." I explain further. "Wait does that mean I can meet Rise if I go to her tofu shop!?" Youske realized. "Can I meet her too?" Yu asks excited. "You guys sound like a bunch of fangirls when they here a song by Justin Beiber or One Direction." I point out a bit weired out that my friends are a bunch of fanboys. "Hey, aren't we getting a little sidetracked from the point here?" Chie asked in annoyance. Youske looked confused. "Did you forget about the murders!? We decided that the connection between the victims was the TV, remember? She could be the next target!" She continued. "Come on, it's not like Rise started showing up on TV just recently." Youske said. "Well Youske I was on TV before coming to Inaba and I was only kidnapped when I got here." I announce. "You were on TV before the incident?" Yu asked. "Yeah apparently some guy had heard me play guitar and wanted to sign me up for a record deal. He had me interviewed and everything. But I backed out after he told me he wanted to change my image and what I played." I explain "You play guitar AND got offered a record deal?" Youske asked suprised. "Are we gonna sit here and play twenty quiestions or talk about the fact we know who the next victim is!?" I say with anger in my voice. we went back to what we were talking about "So if our assumptions are correct she'll probably be targeted next." Youske summed it up. He had to explain to Kanji how with Rise's possibie future kidnapping it confirms our assumption that the victims are broadcasted on TV before they're kidnapped. "Alright, now we have to keep a close eye on everything Rise does! Let's do it!" Youske said very happy. "Dude, you sound like a stalker when you say that." I tell him.

The next day it was rainging pretty hard so track was out of the question. The guys reminded me to watch the Midnight Channel tonight. On my way home I saw Marie just standing out in the rain. I walk over to her and cover her with my ummbrella. She realised the rain stopped hitting her and turned to see me "Thanks." She said. "Well I'm not gonna let you get sick if you decided to stay out here too long. Why are you out here anyway? It's wet hell out here." Her expression darkened when I asked. "He's reading my stuff again." I got a little mad. "What? Ah dammit Yu! Don't worry I'll talk to him again next time I see him." She smiled a little and thanked me. "Need me to walk ya home?" I ask. I just didn't want her to get sick because she's sad. She told me she was fine and left. 'If this keeps up, you and I are gonna have some problems, Narukami.' I think as I walk on the bus back to the Amagi Inn. When I got home I changed into my pajama pants and waited for the Midnight Channel to come on. When it did I saw something. It appeared to be a girl. She was wearing a swimsuit with her hair in a same stlye as Rise's. I couldn't tell if it WAS her because it kept zooming in on her chest and thighs. I tried to call Yu but his line was busy so I just went to bed.

The next day on my way to school I ran into Yu. 'Now's a good time to talk to him.' I call to him and he greeted me. I had a stoic look on my face. "Why do you look so pissed? Is this cause I didn't pick up when you called?" He asked me trying to find out why I'm pissed. "I thought you said you weren't gonna read Marie's stuff anymore." He flinched as soon as he heard that. "Look Yu I told you that evryone gets three chances with me so I'll let this slide with a warning. If you upset her again by reading her stuff I might just have to kick your ass." He nodded in understanding and said okay. I returned to my normal self and walked to school with Yu beside me. It was mostly nothing but awkward silence. I mean I did just threatin to kick his ass. Eventually he asked me "You like Marie dn't you?"I looked at him "Well yeah of course I like her. She's my friend." I said trying not to seem obvious. "You know that's not what I meant." He said firmly. I sighed and said "Okay you caught me. I like her. I actually think that I love her. I just can't tell her." I say sadly. "Well didn't you tell me she kissed your cheek multiple times and you kissed her forhead once?" He aske me. "Well yeah but the kisses on my cheek were to make me feel better and to thank me for being a good guy to her. And vice versa." He put his hand on my shoulder and said "Well you'll come up with something. Just be careful. Marie isn't like most girls." I smiled and said "Maybe that's why I love her." He continued to tell me that we were going to Marukyu after school.

It was just the guys that went considering the girls had plans. I saw Adachi standing in front of the store directing traffic. "Yo Adachi!" I called to him. "Oh, it's you guys. Ai yi yi... These gawkers keep streaming in with there cars, trying to park in the middle of the shopping district." Adachi told us. "Why's that?" Kanji asked. "Don't you know? Rise Kujikawa's here. Hey did you see her already? Is she there? Which is it?" Adachi asked rather eager to hear our answer. "Easy there down boy!" I tell him like he's a dog. "We're asking why a plainclothes detective is here doing traffic control." Kanji said. Adichi got a little scared "Oh... Uh, well... The Inaba Police Department isn't that big, and we don't have enough staff. Well I still have work to do, so I'll see you later." He racewalked away. "I'm confused I thought he had work to do here." I say to myself. "Dude... you managed to scare off a police detective on active duty." Youske said kind of impressed at Kanji's handiwork. "I wasn't trying to scare the guy, I just said what I was thinking." Kanji defended himself. "But you're right, it's weird for the police to come out like this... Hey... you think the police suspect that Rise might be the next target, too?" Youske asked. "Alright, clear out. Coming through... Hey Adachi!" I heard someone shout. I saw Yu's uncle, Dojima, come out of the tofu shop. "Dammit... I told him not to leave his post." He turned and saw us "What are you guys doing-" He got cut off when he saw Kanji with us. Can't blame him he is a troublemaker here. "Hm? Kanji Tatsumi!? Are you friends with them?" He asked Kanji with that stoic look on his face. "Like it's any of your business." Kanji dodged the question. "If you say so. So I'll ask again: What are you all doing here?" He asked us like it was an interrogation. "We came to see Rise." 'Dammit again Yu! He suspects us enough, why'd you have to say that!?' Yu had told me about him and Youske's problems with the police before I came into town so I was a little sceptical about his choice of words. So was Dojima. "Oh, um... W-Well, who would'nt wanna come check it out if they found out an idol's family ran an ordinary tofu store? I'm, uh... a big fan!" Youske said in an awkward tone. Dojima sighed "Fine. But remember. She might be a celebrity but this is her home. Try not to bother them too much." Dojima warned us. "Don't worry sir. We'll treat Rise and her family with the utmost respect." He walked away. "That cop's your uncle, huh? So, what the hell was that all about? Are you guys under suspicion?" Kanji asked us. "Well, they did take us in once.' Youske said. "And since I hang out with them I guess I am now too." I say "Thanks again Youske, because now I can't have a conversation with my uncle without turning it into an interrogation and scaring Nanako." Yu thanked Youske sarcastically. "We can't just tell him everything, right? if we say anything about the other world, we only look more suspicious. They'll be watching us all the time." Youske explained. "Got a point there." Kanji agreed. Then some random guy came out of the store. "Man, there's no one ther but the old lady. Risette isn't here after all." He said disappointed. "I heard that she is already here, but it might've just been a rumor." Someone else said. Then everyone around the store stared to leave. "A RUMOR!? What, she's not here!? Seriously!?" Youske said while his dreams were just shattered and shit on. "Pfft, you sound like the world's about to end." Kanji said laughing. "Maybe not the really world, but his world is in shatters." I say snidely. "Shuddup! Anyways, now that all the people are gone, we might as well check inside. I'll buy something." Youske said in disappointment. "How 'bout gonmodoki?" Yu suggested. "How'd you know I can't eat tofu? Wow, that's considerate of you." Youske said amazed. "Wait, what's gonmodoki again? Is it the kind with a the rice cakes in it?" Youske asked. Frankly I didn't know either. The only difference between Youske and I was I didn't give a single fuck. I just wanted to be done with this and outta here. "There's no rice cakes in 'em... They're sorta like... friend tofu patties with veggies and stuff mixed in, and..." Kanji went on and on about what exactly ganmodoki was. I just zoned out after tofu patties. "Oh, okay, I know what you mean! I think I can eat that."

When we got into the store I saw someone behind the counter. I couldn't tell who it was but I was certain that she was no old lady. I've never met any old woman with red hair. "Let's see here..." Youske looked around to see if he could find Rise. "Sure enough... The only one here is your typpical old lady. *sigh*" Kanji had had enough of Youske's bitching and moaning " Man, why don't you just ask if she's in back? 'Scuse me!" Then an old woman walked up to us. Wait what. 'Then the girl over there is...' "What the-!? Then, who's that?" Youske asked as it started to tap his forehead. The girl in the back turned around and said "What?" Then it bitch slapped Youske right in the face. That was Rise Kujikawa. Kanji walked up to her and asked if she really was Rise. She confirmed it. That caused Yu and Youske to sprint right up to her. 'I'm surrounded by fanboys.' "No way. Are you really Risette?" Youske asked starstrucked. "What do you want?" Rise asked in an annoyed tone of voice. "Huh? Oh, sorry, um... Some tofu, please!" Youske responded still starstruck. I facepalmed. "Tofu? Which kind?" Rise asked. "Huh? Wh-Which one's which again?" Another facepalm from me. "If you're going to eat it y itself, you should go with silken. Momen's better for cooking... Depends how you use it." She answered in a rather depressing tone. "U-Um... Psst, Kanji! Order something!" Youske demanded. "Wha-!? Why're you making me do it!? You already picked ganmo a second ago!" He turned to Rise. "Dude here wants four ganmodoki." Kanji said. "Oh, I see... I'll go get them." 'Jesus fucking Christ this chick's brining me down!' I think as Rise prepares the ganmodoki. "Wow... She's nothing like she seems on TV... I wonder if she's just tired... Man, but it's really her... I'm so glade I came! Mission comple-" He was cut off by me punching the back off his head. I had had enough of his personal objective to get a boner from Rise. "Idiot you forgot we're supposed to warn her about the murders not help you get laid!" I shout in a whispering tone. "'Scuse me Miss Kujikawa?" She looked towards me. "Has anything weird happened lately?" I asked. "Weird? Like stalkers? Are you guys fans of mine?" Kanji pointed to Youske "I wouldn't say 'we' but yeah, dude here's a big fan." Youske flipped "You little! Why'd you let that slip!?" "Her curves, her posture, even her beautiful slim legs." Kanji said trying to imitate Youske "Ya finished checkin 'em out yet, or what?" Youske was panicking like a motherfucker "Waaaaaaah! Y-You're doing this on purpose, aren't you!? I didn't say that! I never said any of that!" Youske said. I covered his mouth so he wouldn't object to what I was about to say "Word for word and even more." Youske was flailing his arms and had a shocked yet pissed look in his eyes. "You may know this already, but it's been pretty hectic here lately. Which is why we're investigating." I say still covering Youske's mouth and holding him still. "Oh yeah?" "Do you know about the show that comes on at midnight? It's the show that comes on only when it rains. Er, um... How do I say this?" "That thing that was on last night right? The Midnight Channe, yeah?" I was so shocked I loosedned my grip on Youske. "You know about it? And you saw it last night?" She nodded and said "I heard the rumor from some friends of mine. But that girl last night wasn't me. I've never been filmed wearing that swimsuit before. And the bustline..." 'Holy shit.' "Mine aren't that big." 'HOLY SHIT!'I could only shout in my mind but not talk. Good thing Youske was filling in during my mind's absence "Oh yeah, I see what you mean now." And clearly failing. "I-I mean... What am I saying!? U-Um, I'm sorry!" Rise finally smiled and said "Don't apologize so much. You're funny." That cheered up Youske. "What's that show about, anyway?" She asks us. "No one knows." I answer. "But we think the people who appear there... are the ones who get kidnapped next." Youske explained. "I know this is sudden, but we're not lying." Kanji said supporting what Youske had said. "We just thought you shoul know." I said. "Huh... So that wasn't a dream. I was tired yesterday, but I couldn't sleep. And it was raining, so I decided to try that rumor I'd heard about. Hmm... Alright, thanks. I'll be careful." She thanked us.

"Here you go, four ganmo. That'll be 600 yen. There's extra tofu in there for everyone... A little thank-you for worrying about me." I decided to try to be funny and said like a cop would "No thanks are necessary ma'am. It's what we do." For some reason she laughed at the god awful joke. The guys just sighed. "Youske, you can't eat tofu, right? Want me to take yours?" Kanji asked. "Hell no! I always eat what people give me." We then parted ways and went home.

That night it rained again. And this time the TV showed the person's face. Now I was certain.

"Unless we stop the killer this time... The next person to be kidnapped is Rise Kujikawa."

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**Now we know that Rise will be kidnapped unless the team stops the killer. In the next chapter something will happen.**

**Next Time: We Fucked Up! We Fucked Up!**


	14. Chapter 14

Chapter 14: We Fucked Up! We Fucked Up!

**I do not own Persona all rights go to Shin Megami Tensei and Atlus.**

**It's a good thing I have a million chapters to go cause I just love writing that disclaimer.**

**...**

**No I can't even pretend to act like I'm not sick of that. Anyway...**

**On with the show!**

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The next day after school the gang met at Junes. We had confirmed that Rise was gonna be kidnapped and thrown into the TV unless we stop the culprit this time We had also confirmed that the whole TV show thing only happens after the person is thrown into the TV considering Rise was still on this side. Seeing as how we couldn't fuck up this time we decided that it was time for another stakeout. With that in mind we headed to the Shiroku Store.

"We gotta go with donuts and milk." Chie said as we looked for some things to eat while we we to staeout the tofu shop. "You said it. There's no better meal than that for a man on a stakeout. Oh, and throw in some disposable diapers." Youske said. Which caused me to hit him on the head AGAIN! "WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU!?" I shouted. He just growled. "Besides they don't even sell those here!" Chie said with annoyance. "We have 'em at Junes." SMACK. I hit Youske again. "STOP HITTING ME!" "STOP BEING SUCH AN IDIOT AND I'LL CONSIDER IT!" We went back and forth on this. "You guys finished yet? Let's hurry up and get going." Kanji said causing me and Youske to stopp arguing. We had gotten everything we needed. Then Adachi walked in. We all turned to him to see him act like he didn't see us. "What're you doin here Adachi?" I ask him. "Oh, um... Well... I'm doing legwork." I thought I heard him mutter something about babysitting but I just ignored it. "I-I mean, it's nothing major. It's not like Dojima ordered me here. So what are you kids up to? Buying snacks." Adachi said changing the subject. "We were just about to head over to the tofu shop to see Rise." Youske told him. I slapped the back of his head because it's not a good idea to tell a detective your whereabouts especially when you're under suspicion of a crime. "Oh... I see. H-Heyyy! I'm on my way there too!" Adachi said. "Oh, then why don't we go there together?" 'You're so lucky you're a girl.' Seeing as how I couldn't hurt Chie I just glared at her. "C'mon, he's a detective on active duty. Not a bad guy to have around!" Chie explained. Nevertheless Adachi was confused 'We're fucked.'

When we got to Marukyu Adachi went in to talk to Rise. The team had split up. The girls were pretending to have a casual conversation in front of the store, while the guys circled around the shopping district making sure to come back here. As for me I found a staircase behind the building across from Marukyu and went top side. What? You never know what a killer might try. Especially a killer like this one. The guys suddenly stopped and clearly realized they looked suspicious coming by here every five minutes. That's when I saw someone climb a telephone pole. "GUYS! ON THE PHONE POLE!" I shout to the others. The culprit came down fireman style and started running. I found the perfect way down so I wouldn't have to circle around the building. In other words I parkored down a building. I was almost killed when a fucking delivery truck almost RAN ME OVER! But I started sprinting after the others. I caught them at the North end of the shopping district. "Hey you're just in time. We're about to jump him." Youske said. "All right on my mark..." Youske continued. "Look! over there! A Martian!" Any other time I'd slapp Youske for trying that thousand year old trick but this dumb motherfucker bought it for some reason. Needless to say it was funny as shit. We brought him back to the south end of the district. "H-How dare you assult an ordinary citizen like-" "Shut the hell up, murderer! We're taking your punk ass in!" Kanji said cutting off the suspect. "Wha-!? Time out! What do you mean 'murderer'" He asked us scared as fuck. "It's no use playing dumb!" Chie yelled. "W-Wait a second! I just really like Risette, so I wanted to take a peek in her room. Look see! All I've got on me are a bunch of cameras!" Now I was pissed. Even if he wasn't the killer he was trying to get picture just so he could beat off on them. This motherfucker was getting the death penalty. And I was gonna be the executioner. Or I would be if Kanji and Yu would just UNRESTRAIN ME! "Yep, you're the culprit all right. No two ways about it. Adachi said ignoring my little skitzofranic episode. "All right, I'll take it from here." He flashed his badge like a boss "We'll hear your story down at the station... Ohh, how I've waited to use that line!" He said as he slapped the cuffs on this motherfucker, prepared to take him to the pennywagon. "P-Please! Let me go! I didn't do anything wrong!" The suspect objected terrified, mostly of me. "I know for a fact it's not a crime in this country to take secret pictures!" He went on "No but it's illegal in my prescence asshole!" That's where Youske covered my mouth. "Hey, don't you understand what's happening here? You're under suspicion of murder! Come with me! We'll talk about this later!" Adachi said still ignoring my fuck out. Not flip out, fuck out. He changed from serious to happy as he turned and saluted to us and said Wow, that was better than I thouht! What a coup! I gotta thank you guys for all your help! Well done!" This guy actually makes me wanna be a cop. I mean he's excited that we caught a criminal and he was going to jail. Back home cops don't give a fuck about wether or not the suspect is caught, as long as they get there paychecks they're golden. But Adachi he was the perfect example of how a cop should act. He then warned us to stay out of any further police business and walked off.

"Is it... really over?" Youske asked. "Rest is up to the cops." Kanji said with pride in his voice. "Looks like the killer was a pervert, just like we thought. Wait ... Does that mean the case is closed? Seriously!? Awesome!" Chie says with excitement. But I couldn't help but have my doubts. I mean thinking back if that guy was the killer he would have rung the doorbell or whatever. But this guy, he was trying to be sneaky. I had the feeling that something was deeply wrong with how this case unordinary case ended in such an ordinary and anticlimactic way. No one else seemed to share my doubts as we walked away. When we got to the front of the tofu shop Youske had an idea "Hey, we should let Rise know the good news!" Just as he was about to sprint up into the store Rise's grandmother came out "Oh, hello. Would you like some tofu?" She asked us. "Oh, h-hello. Umm..." Before Youske could continue he was cut off by granny "Oh, did you come to see Rise? She seems to have gone out unfourtunetly." 'But she was just here literally 30 seconds ago and I never saw her leave. Oh god no. We didn't...' Youske shared my curiosity as to where Rise went and asked her what I thought "She does that sometimes. She'll just wander out without a word. You must forgive her. She's quite worn out, in many ways." Now he shared my fear as to what REALLY happened. "She left... Without saying anything?" He asked us which was when I shouted "We fucked up! We fucked up!" Adachi didn't share our fears as he said "C'mon, you worry too much! She must've just stepped out. I mean, we caught the guy. Now I regretted what I thought before. He acted like how a cop should but he wasn't all that bright considering how bad we fucked up. Him and the "culprit" left the scene as the rest of us searched around the neighborhood to see if we could find her. Nothing. Kanji reminded us that it was supposed to rain tonight and to check our TV's tonight. I deeply hoped that I was wrong and we just couldn't find her in town. But while my mind thought that we did, I myself, KNEW better. With a case like this it never ends that easy. You don't need to be Sherlock Holmes to know that.

I waited for my clock to strike midnight and for the TV to turn on. It did and what I saw was, well... A strip club. Yeah. A strip club. "So I was right." I say as Rise appears on the screen. "Maru-Q! Push Risette! Good evening, godd evening! I'm Rise Kujikawa! This spring, one young girl levels up to become a high school idol... Yayyyy! So today, I'm gonna celebrate by pushing the limits of Standards & Practices!" 'WHAT!?' "Does everybody know what time it is? Showtime! Show what, huh? Hmhmhm... E-very-thing!" I can only express fear and awkardness. "Eee, how embarrassing! Is this too hot for TV!? Well, if a thing is worth doing, it's worth doing all the way! I'm gonna bare it all fore you! Heehee! Stay tuned!" With that the image disappeared.

"..."

"I was wrong this is gonna be worse than the sauna."

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**Fuck my slow computer! Once again that could gave taken less than 20 minutes if my computer wasn't so slow. *sigh* Oh well. Next chapter we go after Rise and I write another awkward chapter. So I hope you look forward to my bitching after that.**

**Next Time: Another Awkward Chapter!**


	15. Chapter 15

Chapter 15: Another Awkward Chapter!

**I do not own Persona all rights go to Shin Megami Tensei and Atlus.**

**God that's getting on my nerves. Anyway let's get to this shall we?**

**On with the show!**

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The next day after school we went into the TV to find Rise. "Heeeey Teddie, you okay?" Chie asked noticing Teddie looked sad again today. "I wasn't crying." Teddie said before he fell to his knees in sadness "Everyone was having fun out there. You forgot about me... I was abandoned." 'Shit, now I'm depressed again!' "W-We would never do that!" Chie said in a reassuring voice. "I'm sorry... Were you lonely?" Yukiko asked. Teddie got up and said "I was bored. It made me all listless. I'm a useless bear. I don't ven know what I am. I couldn't figure it out... No one would come visit me... Then I thought I heard voices from your world. They were all having so much fun... I was so lonely that I tried to cry. But I couldn't." He said in a constant depressing tone bringing me down even more. "Well, you are hollow inside." Youske said. Teddie was pissed for I believe the first time since I met him "Shut up! Stop saying I'm hollow!" Teddie demanded. Now Youske flipped "Don't snap at me! This is your world, isn't it!? You're the one who said you just wanted to live here peacefully, and made us promise to find the culprit!" Chie took a step forward and said "C'mon, I'm sure Teddie's just tired from thinking so much, right?" Teddie turned around again "When I'm alone, I think to much. It makes me even lonelier. I was so sad that my chest would burst and cotton would fly out." The girls went up to Teddie to pet him. Ted turned back around and asked them " Can I try scoring wwith you two someday?" 'I see what his plan is.' "Sure, go right ahead!" Chie said. Even I knew if anyone else asked her that that take a kick to the nads. "Can we please drop the whole 'scoring' thing?" Yukiko asked pissed off about I don't know what. "Anyways, we wanted to ask you something! How's it been over here? Did a girl called Rise Kujikawa show up? Can you sense anything?" Youske asked getting to the reason of why we were here. It was the same thing as with Kanji. Teddie knew someone was here but he couldn't tell where. Ted was worried we would throw him away but we lifted his spirits and told him we'd never think about that. I mean sure the guy can get on a person's nerves sometimes but like it or not he's part of this growing and dysfunctional family. Back to the problem at hand we had no idea where to find Rise and I didn't have anything to help Teddie. Yu on the other hand somehow got a hold of Rise's cell phone strap. Teddie sniffed and started walking with us behind him.

We soon got to... Well something. It was hard to tell because there were no lights. But when they turned on we were blinded cause it was FUCKING BRIGHT! But we could see the shadow was waiting for us. Rise was there watching her shadow dance on a stripper pole. Yeeeah. "There it is!" Chie exclaimed. "Look the real one's here too!" Youske noticed. Rise's shadow let out one fucking creepy laugh as we walked towards them. "They're all watching! All eyes are on me now!" The shadow remarked. "Stop it." Rise begged. "Awwwww! What's the matter? You wanna show your stuff, don'tcha? How's this!?" I did not like where this was going as I saw the shadow do some unbeleivably vulgar stuff with that pole. "Please... stop this." Rise begged again. This angered the shadow. It laughed that creepy laugh and said "Oooh, she wants me to stop. That's so funny! As if that's even close to what you're really thinking, you little skank!" 'whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa WHOA! WHAT THE FUCK!? This is getting a bit to much for one man to take.' I think as the shadow goes on "You're me! And obviously, I'm you!" The shadow revealled. "No... that's not true." Rise denied. The fucking laugh again and the shadow said "C'mon, look! You can't tear your eyes away! This is me! This is who I really am! Not Risette the fake celebrity! Look at the girl right in front of you! I'm sick of being some airhead cliche who chokes down everything she's fed and takes it all with a smile! Risette? Who the hell is she? There's no such person in this world! I'm no one but myself? C'mon, look at me!" The shadow rambled on and on. "That's not-I..." Rise couldn't find the right words. "Well then, I guess it's time to prove it. I'm gonna show it all off! Let my naked truth be burned into your brains!" The shaodw ordered."I don't want anything to be burned into my brain!" I say not wanting this to go on. Seriously this is way to much for one man. "Stop... Stop it! You're..." Rise was about to say the three words that we did not want to hear. "IN THE NAME OF ALL THAT IS PRECIOUS, DO NOT SAY IT!" I begged because I did not want to know what this fight with this sadow would be like. It didn't help.

"You're... not me!"

The familiar black and red mist surrounded the shadow as it laughed and said "Here it comes! Now, I'm finally myself!" When the shadow transformed it had a satellite dish for a head, it still had Rise's pigtails, and it's body was what you'd expect to see when you're high off your ass. The shadow came down from the pole and said "Take a look!" That's where I say "I'd really rather not, thank you!" Now it was time to kick some ass.

"PERSONA!"

We summoned our Personas. Chie had her Persona, Tomoe, give Rise to Teddie. Before our Personas could attack the shadow sent out some kind of light. But it didn't seem to affect our Personas so we went for an attack. Yu, Kanji and I went for a three way Zio attack with Kanji and Yu using Zionga with Izanagi and Take-Mikazuchi, while Ongyo-Ki and I went for Ziodyne. But the shadow just acrobatically dodged all three of them. And when Yukiko and Chie tried to attack with there Personas the shadow dodged them too. "It dodged all that!?" Chie asked in annoyance that we couldn't hit the damn thing. "Wait a sec is that light..." Youske started. "You're right. It scans our Personas and sees our attacks." "Analysis complete!" The shadow said preparing to counterattack. It grabbed the pole and fired multi colored attacks. They were all the elements to which each of our Personas were weak to. We all shouted in shear agony. "What do we do?" Yu asked trying to think of a way to win. "Here's another round!" The shadow fired another blast. And another. And another until we were all down on the ground. "I think the time has finally come... To get rid of you once and for all!" As soon as it said that four more poles appeared. "OH GIVE ME A FUCKING BREAK!" I yell mostly in fear. "We're screwed!" Youske said in fear as well. "Does this mean, we're all gonna die?" Yukiko asked in pure terror. "Teddie... Take Rise and GET OUTTA HERE NOW!" Yu ordered. "But Sensei, I can't just abeardon everybody! I don't wanna wind up all alone again!" Teddie argued. "DAMMIT TED DON'T FIGHT HIM ON THIS! JUST TAKE RISE AND GET THE FUCK OUT!" I demand. "WE CAME HERE TO SAVE RISE AND ONE WAY OR ANOTHER, WITH US OR WITHOUT US SHE'S GETTING THE FUCK OUT! AND SO ARE YOU!" I continue as the five poles the shadow had merged. "Say goodbye. Forever!" The shaodw said preparing to finish us once and for all. "Stop it!' I heard Rise say to her shadow. "That's enough, okay. Just let them be!" She pleaded. "You annoying bitch! You wanna go first?" The shadow asked. Then something really unexpected happened. Teddie stepped in front of Rise ready to take the hit. "Huh!? W-Why am I taking the lead on this?" Teddie asked himself. "What the hell? Why is his energy signal so huge?" The shadow asked. "RAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAWR! I DON'T KNOW WHAT'S HAPPENING! MY BODY IS JUST MOVING ON IT'S OWN!" Teddie said charging the shadow. "S-Stay back!" The shadow demanded ready to shoot. "NO! DON'T DO IT!" We all shout in unision. When the beam hit Teddie, he wasn't affected at all. He jumped onto the poles still shooting energy. "The system is overloading!" The shadow said as it and Teddie were caught in an explosion. "TEDDIE!" We shout in unison again.

When it was over we got back up and walked over to Teddie who was totally flattened like a pancake. "Crazy ass bear. What you did was nuts." Kanji told Teddie how stupid that was. "Yeah but, was Teddie a helpful bear?" Teddie asked us. "You were more than just helpful..." Youske started "You saved everyone here." Yu finished. "Yeah you were awesome!" Chie congradulated. "We could go out. Just once." Yukiko said excepting Teddie's invitation from before. "You're one crazy bastard Ted. But without ya we'd be all over the walls." I said. "Teddie. You saved me." Rise said walking over to the flat bear. "I know how you feel and how bad it hurts... When you don't know for sure who you really are. It's hard. But you don't have to worry about it alone. You and me, we can figure out together." Teddie told Rise. "You and me?" She repeated. "Yeah! And Sensei and the others too." Teddie confirmed. She turned towards us and apologized for putting us through this. "It's not your fault." I tell her. "Look just take it easy for now." Yu says. She nodded and said "It's been a long time since someone said that to me." She walked towards her shadow 'I'm so sorry. Look I... I thought so hard just to try to figure out who the real me truely is. But then I realized, no amount of serching was going to help. Because there was no real me to find." She told her shadow. "That mean there's... No real me either?" I hear Teddie say. "But now I know, that Risette, you, everyone are all a part of me." With that the shadow was engulfed in a blue light and became a Persona. Himiko. When Rise fell and Yu caught her Youske was pretty jealous "Dude no fair!" "She just completely passed out." Yu exlplained. "Who could blame her?" Chie asked. "I think that all of us... are pretty exhausted." Yukiko said also reffering to our Personas. "Let's get going I don't want to-"

"There is no real me! No true self!"

We turn around and see another shadow. Teddie's shadow.

"Fuck me sideways!"

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**Cliffhanger! Feel free to leave me a review or whatever and tell me what you guys think of this chapter and the series all together so far because I could really go for some feedback. Next chapter we fight Teddie's shadow. And something else.**

**Next Time: A New Found Power**


	16. Chapter 16

Chapter 16: A New Found Power

**I do not own Persona all rights go to Shin Megami Tensei and Atlus.**

**I remember when I used to not give a fuck about that. Now I wanna kill myself every time I have to type it. Let's just do this.**

**I also just realised as I posted the last chapter I've been forgetting to put the shadow text in bold so I'm sorry about that.**

**On with the show!**

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Teddie has a shadow? Who the fuck saw that one coming? And why do we have to fight it? We just flipped off Death and we have to fight another one? "Oh balls." Kanji said upset at the fact we have to fight another shadow after we almost died from the last one. "Is that freaky thing Teddie's other self?" Chie asked. Yu had a look on his face that told me 'don't bother me I'm thinking.' **"Such idiotic, FOOLISHNESS!"** The shadow says with a sadistic smile. **"You see the trut, will ALWAYS be shrouded in fog!"** It said as fog erupted from it filling the room. It had transformed. It pretty much still looked like Teddie only bigger and more feral. And it's eyes were fucking creepy. **"I am a shadow of you're true inner self! Try though you may to find meaning, but you'll never know for sure if it is the truth or a lie." **The shadow started sucking up debris like a vacuum into it's left eye. "He's gonna pull us in." Chie said hanging on for dear life. **"So knowing that, why do you even bother seeking the truth at all?"** Teddie being in the state he's in now flew right into the shadows eye with the rest of the debris. **"How can you possibly find something, when you don't even know what you're looking for? The truth you seek will only bring you suffering!"** "Why do you say that?" Yu finally spoke up.** "Let me impart one bit of the truth for you. You are all going to die here!" **The vacuum the shadow is causing is making it harder to hold on to anything. Nevertheless I still held on to the pole I was hanging on. "IZANAGI!" I hear you call his Persona. I look and see Rise summoning her Persona. And there it was. It had the same ability as Rise's shadow. It scanned Teddie's shadow for any weak points. "There's something else in there. Besides Teddie." Rise revealled. "What is it?" Yu asked. "I can't tell. The fog is to thick for me to analyze it." Rise answered. We tried to attack, with the fog being so thick and couldn't see it and the fact that we just got the shit kicked out of as just a few seconds ago we hardly stood a chance. Whent he shadow wasn't waiting for us to get sucked into it's eye it tried to force us to lose our grip on whatever it was we were holding onto at the time. And it was pretty effective. I must have shift positions and gotten closer to the thing half a dozen times. I soon found myself staring the shadow in the face. **"Why do you continue to fight? You know that you fight a battle that cannot be won. Just give up and embrace your inevitable death!" **The shadow ordered me. "There's no way in hell I'm letting you win without putting up some kind of fight! Ongyo-Ki!" I call my Persona and had it strike with Brave Blade. It was the first attack to hit the shadow seeing as how I was looking at it dead in the eye. **"AHHHH! You will pay dearly for that!" **It said raising it's hand gathering energy. "NOW'S OUR CHANCE! FOLLOW ONGYO-KI AND ATTACK!" I order everyone. We managed to do some damage but the bastard was still focusing energy. As everyone alse backed off after the attack the shadow unleahsed all of it's energy right at me.

"AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"

As I screamed in pain waiting for death to claim me I found myself being blown all the way to the back of the room. Luckily the suction wasn't stong enough to reach back here so there little movement from me. But the structure was weak and the vacuum wasn't getting stronger. I closed my eyes and waited to die. "Well I guess I had a good run." I say as I waitfor death's cruel embrace.

When I opened my eyes I saw that I was no longer in the strip club. I don't even think I was in that world at all. I found myself in some kind of car with the entire interior covered in blue velvet. I look around and see a man with a long nose with his hands crossed and he had a creepy smile and even creepier eyes. I also saw a woman dressed in blue with bleach blonde hair. The next thing I saw blew my fucking mind. I saw Marie. "Welcome to the Velvet Room." The man with the long nose welcomed me. "My name is Igor. I am delighted to make your aquaintance." The man named Igor introduced himself. He turned to the girl with the blonde hair "This is my assistant Margret. She is a resident of this place. Like myself." "Pleased to meet you." Margret said extending her hand. I shook it as Igor said "And you are already familiar with her apprentice Marie." I turn to Marie who looks really nervous about my being here. "Marie, what's going on? Why are you here. Why am I here? Am-Am I... dead." Igor chuckled and responded "No, no my boy. This is not the afterlife. I have merely brought you here because Marie has been pleading me to do so seeing as how you and your friends are fighting a battle to the death." I rubbed my head and said "You saw that huh? Well why does Marie want me here?" She finally spoke and said "Because we can help you win." I was confused. "How?" I ask. "I have seen the dormant power within you. Marie has asked you here so that I can unlock that power. With it you will be able to win this fight and save your friends." Now I was interested. "I'm listening." Igor chuckled again and told me to close my eyes and clear my head of all thoughts. I did so and as I did I heard him pull out what assumed to be cards. "Now... do you see the cards?" He asked. "Yes. What do I do now?" "One of these tarot cards hold your inner strenth. If you choose correctly that power will be yours. But be warned if you choose the wrong card you soul will be lost forever. Trapped in Limbo for all eternity." I panicked "But theres like twenty of these things! How am I supposed to know which one to use!?" "You will know when you see it. But I would choose quickly if I were you. Your friends are still in grave danger." Igor told me putting even more pressure on me. 'If I choose the right card I get more power and I can help the others. But if I choose the wrong one I lose my soul. And I can't take to long or the others will die. What do I do? WHAT DO I DO!?' I stare at the cards in my head and I see one that stands out above the the others. The Gaurdian Arcana. It had a golden frame with a 'X' below. Two other cards had different frame colors like this one but the Gaurdian Arcana had an energy around it that the others did not. I reached out and grabbed it and I saw something. Ongyo-Ki had appeared before me. It was engulfed in a blue aura and it transformed. It's one double cresent edged blade had become two giant katanas. They had the same appearence as my weapons but instead of one with a plain white blade it had a red one. It wore a red trench coat and a mask to cover it's face but only the bottom half, it had blood red eyes and long white hair that reached it's back.

**"Thou art I, and I am thou. For the sea of soul I cometh. I am Rebellion, The Red Warrior."**

I was engulfed in another bright light and found myself back in the TV world. The battle was still going on and we were losing. I also noticed that my hair had changed color. It was now the same shade of whit as my new Persona, Rebellion's, hair was. "Time for me to step up and show 'em what I've got. I got up on my feet and moved forward unaffected by the suction power of the shadow's vacuum. 'What the hell is he crazy!" I hear Kanji shout. "Wait Kanji! Look, he's totally unaffected." Youske pointed out. **"So you've come back for more have you? Well I'd be more than happy to give you more pain!" **The shadow charged up it's Nihil Hand attack and I just smiled. "Nope, I've come back to kick your ass. With the help of a new friend of mine." I reach out for the my new Gaurdian Arcana card and everyone was wondering why it changed from the Hermit to this. I just ignored them.

"PERSONA!"

**BGM: Determination**

Everyone saw my new Persona and just stared in awe. **"What's this? Do you think that this new power can stop me!?"** I smiled again and said "Nope. I know it can!" I extended my hand ordering Rebellion to attack. I had it attack with Hassou Tobi and boy did it hurt the shadow. **"Argh! You miserable brat you won't stop me with such feble attacks like that!"** "Good thing I'm using stong ones like that ya dumb furball!" I taunt. **"Why you!"** It tried to attack me but I jumped up and pulled out my swords. In one clean strike I cut it's arm off. **"ARGH! How dare you! I'll rip you and your miserable friends to shreads and send you to hell!"** "Now who's telling the lies?" I taunt again. I had Rebellion attack with Agidyne and then Primal Force. I landed a critical and it was down. While it was the vacuum stopped. "You guys just gonna sit there r are ya gonna help me take this guy out alone?" I ask the others. The got up and we went for an All-Out Attack. While the shadow was heavily damaged it wasn't done. "There his weak spot is just below his chest!" Rise said. "Perfect." I charge the shadow with Rebellion behind me. The shadow tried to attack me with it's other hand but Rebellion kept swating it away. I jump up and twist my swords so the blades are facing downward.

"This here is the perfect example of how far we're willing to go... TO FIND THE TRUTH!"

I stabbed the shadows weakspot with both my swords. I had Rebellion do the same.

**"AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"**

**BGM ends**

The shadow crumbled away. "It stopped." Kanji said. When the shadow was gone Teddie was standing where it once did. "TEDDIE!" Yu called out. "Teddie! Are you alive!?" Youske asked. "Wha-!? Hey I'm flat now! What happened to my beartiful fur!?" Teddie asked finally realizing he was flattened. "He's alive." I answer Youske's question. "We'll he's clearly not about to keel over anytime soon." Kanji agreed. "Hard to believe that even Teddie had a part of himself that he hid from everyone." Chie remarked. Teddie looked behind him to see his shadow in it's normal state. 'It's sad... Not knowing who you are. And this whole time, I was afraid that if I did look, I might not find any answers at all. But even if I didn't find any answers that I wanted I'm still here! And I'm still beary much alive!" Teddie shouted. "I'm with you." Rise remarked from behind us. "You totally get me." Teddie said in a thankful tone. "Let's find our answers together." Rise said smiling. "Teddie, you're far from alone." Yu said. "In fact you're anything but alone. You got us you little fuzbucket!" I say with a wide grin. "Sensei. Mikey." "Yeah why not? We'll help you look for your answers Teddie." Youske said. "You guys... Thank you! Teddie is such a lucky little bear." Teddie said with tears in his eyes. We then noticed his shadow was glowing a familiar shade of blue. "A Persona? I have my own Persona now?" Teddie asked. Indeed Teddie had gained his Persona. Kintoki-Doji. "I feel tremendous power coming from it. Isn't that great Teddie?" Rise said congradulating the bear. "It's beary beary good! Thanks Rise!" Teddie thanked her. She fell to her knees in exhaustion. That's understandable she just got her Persona and used it all in one day.

Before we left the TV world Teddie told us he wanted to be alone for awhile. He said he would train until his fur grew back. Yu stopped me as I was about to head home. "Thanks for everything back there. You saved everyones lives." He thanked me. I just laughed and rubbed the back of my head in embarrassment. "What was that power you had back there? And that Arcana, I've never seen anything like it!" Yu asked curious as to how I got this new power. "I honestly don't know myself. All I know is, I'm glad I got it when I did." We shook hands and went seperate ways.

I got on my bike and just as I was about to leave for the inn Marie stopped me. She must have wanted to see if I was alright. I took off my helmet and she noticed my hair and laughed. "Hey don't laugh! Every perk has it's downsides!" I exclaim. She stopped laughing and said "I'm glad you're okay." Then she slapped me "But don't scare me like that again you denseheadeddimwit!" Now I laughed and said "Don't worry that was a one time thing." Then I got a little more serious "I've got a few questions." She knew what I was reffering to and explained everything. How she's not really from this world and what that Velvet Room was all about. She apologized for not telling me sooner. Don't know why though because she had nothing to apologize for. Either way I told her I forgave her. I then left.

As I look at myself in the mirror and notice my white hair I say to myself "Well... It's not that bad. I could grow to like it." I wrap up my newest wounds and decide to hit the hay.

The next thing I knew I was back in the Velvet Room. "Oh come on! Now what?" I ask. "Do not be alarmed you are fast asleep in the real world. I have summoned you within your dreams. I have summoned you here to explain to you this new power of yours." I was intrigued. I motioned him to continue. "With this power of yours you can forge and summon new unique Personas that only you can weild. All you need to do is to call for my help and I shall assist you in creating these Personas." I was confused. "You say I can create new Personas, how?" "All you need are more Persona cards. These cards will be seen exclusively to you. All you need to do is bring them here and I shall fuse them togther to create new Personas." Igor explained. "Okay I get it. But how will I come back?" He gave me a blue key. "Hold onto this. With it you may came and go as you please. From this night forth, you shall be our guest in this Velvet Room." I nodded and said "Okay thanks Igor." "I also have a favor to ask of you." I nodded in acceptence to whatever it was he needed because it was the least I could do. "I notice that you are quite fond of my assisstant's apprentice, Marie. She seems to be fond of you as well. I ask that you help her and guide her through your world so she may have a better understanding of it. This used to be our other guest, Yu Narukami's, job... But I have decided to releave him of this task and pass it to you. Do you accept?" My eyes lit up 'Hell yeah! You can count on me sir." He chuckled and said "Very well. Well then, have a good night ." And the next time I opened my eyes, it was the next day. I look at the Velvet Key Igor gave me and said to myself "Things are looking up for me."

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**Yes I've made my own Arcana and I'll be making my own Personas as well. If you have any ideas for a Persona just send me a message and I'll see if I can't bring it in. Now I'd really appreciate it if you guys left a review for this chapter because I think that this is my best work so far.**

**Now onto other bussines I may not be able to update this story as often because I'm thinking of doing a Rosario Vampire story. Maybe. It'll be another OC story featuring Michael Williams but what I want you guys' help with is to help me decide who I pair him with in it. Just message me or write in the reviews wether you want me to pair him with Moka, Kurumu, or Mizore. No Yukari cause that'd be weird pairing my 16 year oold OC with a 12 year old. So just message or whatever and I'll tally up the votes and if I decide to do it the most votes wins.**

**Next chapter we get a new addition to the team and stuff with Teddie happens.**

**Next Time: The New Teddie and Rise**


	17. Chapter 17

Chapter 17: The New Rise and Teddie

**Only own my OC**

**That's much less annoying. **

**Wow it took longer than I thought it would take to get a story banned. For those of you who read my other story and are wondering why you can't find it, it got banned. Yeah. apparently some dickhead who won't be named reported my story because I cussed too much in it even though I cuss way more in this one. So just to be safe I'm changing this stories rating to M so I can avoid another incident like that. Now that that's outta the way...**

**On with the show!**

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The next couple of weeks flew by. I showed Marie around town a few times, and she seemed to have fun. I also hung out with Yu a few times, even though he was trying to help me with Marie. But nonetheless I enjoyed having some company while we waited for the case to move forward. We hadn't gone into the TV at all so I never got the chance to get some of those Persona cards that Igor told me about. I took a few rides around town on my bike. I visited Okina City and made a recent trip to the beach, where I just stared out to the sea.

Today (July 10) Youske decided to give me a call. I thought he just wanted to hang out so I eagerly answered. "Yo, Youske! What's up buddy?" The words that came out of his mouth scared the shit outta me.

"There's been another incident!" Youske shouted into the phone. When he said "incident" I was praying he meant that he pissed his pants or something. I asked him what he meant in a shaky tone. "They found another dead body!" I stood up and started getting dressed.

"Where?" I ask in a more serious tone. The day before I checked the Midnight Channel and I didn't see anyone. And I clearly remember us rescuing Rise. I mean how couldn't I? I got my hair dyed.

"It was found just outside the shopping district!" Youske answered I grabbed the keys for my bike and headed out the door.

"I'm on my way, I'll meet you there. Do the others know?" I asked.

"Yeah. I called Chie and told her to call the others. They're meeting at the food court while you and I check out the scene." I got on my bike and I was off.

'How could this have happened!? There was no one on the Midnight Channel last night! How could someone have died. Dammit! I hope the others can shed some light on this situation.'

It was easy to tell where the body was found. Just had to follow the large amounts of people heading towards the police cars. I got off my bike and started looking for Youske. "Youske! Youske!" I called out. No answer. I heard some cops telling people to make way for the dead body. Before they hauled it into the ambulance they opened the body bag to see who it was. When they did I almost threw up. It was King Moron. King Moron was the latest victim to this horrific case. Youske finally arrived at the scene."Hey! Did you find out anything?" Youske asked. I had a terrified look on my face as I told him who the victim was. "King Moron!? Are you serious!?" I could only nod. "Come on, we'd better fill the others in on this!" I got on my bike and Youske on his scooter and we headed to Junes.

They were all there waiting for us. Yu seemed to have arrive just as Youske and I did. We ran up to the others and Youske was the first to speak. "Yeah, it was murder all right. The body was hanging upside down on an apartments rooftop railing." He said trying to catch his breath. That's when I spoke up."The victim was..." I gulped cause just the thought of our own homeroom teacher made wanna throw up my guts. "It was King Moron." Everyone was as shocked as I was when I told them. They all stood up in shock. Kanji responded saying "You mean THAT King Moron!? You're guys' home room teacher?" They Chie spoke up and she was petrified "W-Why? What on earth's going on here!?" I answer saying "I don't know, but I saw the body with my own eyes. I recognized those teeth anywhere." Kanji had gone from shocked to pissed while skipping the denial stage "Gotta be shitting me... Ain't the killer targeting people who get shown on TV? I ain't ever seen King Moron on the Midnight Channel, or any other programs!" It was true, the TV last night was blank none of us had seen him on any regular news shows. I started thinking that everything that happened with the Midnight Channel and the victims were mere coincidence. Then I started thinking that if they did they wouldn't have happened the way they did.

"Why? Why did this happen?" Youske asked in scared and mildly pissed off tone. "I thought we finally figured some things out... Were they all just a big coincidence?" Chie asks what I was thinking. "Maybe the Midnight Channel doesn't have anything to do with this." Yukiko said also reading my mind. "Dammit! We came so far, and now we're back to square one!? We're we in over our heads, trying to catch a culprit that even the police couldn't find?" Youske asked in disappointment. "No way! It's to early to give up!" Yu said in determination. "Damn straight! We started this thing because the police can't tell their asses from their elbows. We give up now, and that shithead's gonna be on the loose forever. This ain't the time for bitching and moaning... We gotta keep on keepin' on." Kanji agreed. "Yeah! We started this thing so it's up to us to finish it. I don't care if we hit a sharp turn, we gotta keep goin on with this thing!" I agreed. Youske sighed and said "I know. We're dealing with a murderer here. But we've all risked our lives to get this far." I pointed at my hair and said "Clearly." He continued "Anyways... No way we'll back down. And we promised the bear too." Chie got an idea when Youske mentioned Teddie "Hey, that's right! Maybe Teddie knows something about this!" We all headed for the electronics department but something was different about this visit. There was staff here. Youske went up to the two staff workers and asked if something was wrong. They said that some mascot was walking around the store. They said his name was Terry or Eddie. 'Oh fuck me.' I think to myself knowing who they were talking about. "Whoa, h-he's here!" Chie said. We looked in the direction she was looking and we saw Teddie sitting on a massage chair. We ran over to see what the fuck he was doing here.

"Aaaaahhh. This really hits the spot." He said enjoying the chair. "Wh-What the? I mean, how'd you?" Youske stuttered. "It took you guys long enough! I've been waiting." Teddie said nonchalantly. 'Teddie, are you okay on this side!?" Yukiko asked. "How did you even leave your side!?" Kanji finally asked what we were all thinking. "Of course I can come out. There's an exit. It just never occurred to me to do it before." Teddie answered. 'I FUCKING KNEW IT!' I think to myself cause I knew that he could use the fucking exit, I just couldn't believe how stupid Teddie was for not coming over sooner. "But spending time with you all sparked my curiosity about this world! I did wonder if it was a good idea, but my feet started moving before I could decide. And when I thought about it, I had nowhere to go, and it was a waste to go back. So I waited here for you." He then went on to explain the whole 'introducing himself to the work staff' thing. "Oh yeah, there's something we need to ask you!" Yukiko started getting to the point of why we wanted to see him. "How long have you been here, Teddie? Did anyone enter the other world?" She asked. We went back and forth asking Ted over and over again if he was sure no one was there and that his nose wasn't stuffed or anything. But he assured us no one was there. Which means that King Moron was never inside the TV. After all that, Teddie handed me a pair of pink glasses, they were obviously for Rise considering she might want to join us now. Which also meant that Teddie could join us on the offensive side of the team.

We all regrouped at the food court to discuss what might have happened with King Moron. Teddie was still insisting that no one was on the other side when he left, but Youske kept pestering him. It took me slapping the back of his head to stop asking. When we couldn't come up with any new clues we came to a conclusion that we should see if Rise could tell us anything. Before we left Teddie spoke up. "It's so hot out. I'm taking this off." He then reached for his head attempting to take it off. Thank god Youske stopped him. "Cut it out! There's kids watching! Geez... They'll be scarred for life if they see an empty mascot walking around. Have a little consideration, man." Youske said.

"I'm glad you're back to normal, though. Your fur's all fuzzy again." Yukiko said finally realizing Teddie's fur grew back. "C-Can I... Can I feel it?" Kanji asked anxious to pet Teddie. unfortunately his dreams were crushed as Teddie declined. "Actually, I'm no longer a hollow bear! Mwahaha! I trained and trained, hoping to someday score with Chie and Yuki... And now I finally have an inside!" Teddie cheered. "Yeah... good job with that." Chie said not believing Ted. But then again, who would? "Come on! Can't we give it a rest with the whole "scoring" thing?" Yukiko said pissed that Teddie said score. "Dude you're hollow. Taking your head off isn't gonna cool you down!" Youske explained. "Didn't you hear what he just said. Though I don't really believe it myself." I say. "But I just told you! I'm not hollow anymore! Agh, it's too hot. I can't stand it." Teddie said while sweating. He reached for his head again and when he took it off, we found out that Ted wasn't lying. He actually did somehow grow a body. We also found out he was blonde. He reached for a soda and drank it to cool off. "Now that hit the spot." He said happily. He then turned to the girls "Hey, Chie, Yuki." The girls were as speechless as I was. I mean how does one from another world grow a fucking human body!? "Do you have anything to wear? I'm basically like a newborn at the moment." Teddie continued. "Wait, did you say you're were like a newborn!? Then don't take the bottom part off!" Chie said while blushing. "If you don't wanna see him naked you two should go get the guy some clothes. We'll meet you girls at the shopping district." I instruct the girls. As the three of them walked off everyone just stared at Teddie. "What is he!?" We all ask in unison.

The guys and I waited for the girls and Teddie in front of the Shiroku Store. We had decided to get some Topsicles, which I guess are popsicles. Whatever they were they were good. When the three of them finally arrived Teddie was sporting some kind of rich boy look. Just by looking at those clothes I could tell they were expensive as shit. He wore a white button up shirt with a rose on the left side, blue jeans, and black pointed shoes. In a non gay way, he looked pretty good. "Whoa! I-Is that you Teddie?" Youske asked the new Teddie. "Oui, monsieur! How do I look?" Teddie confirmed in French because he apparently knows some. "C'est magnifique." Yu answered because he apparently knows French too. "Uh, don't encourage him. I have to say it totally blew my mind, but he's Teddie alright." Chie said. She then went on about how he went nuts in the women's section and scolded him on how he can't do whatever he wants in our world. He looked down at first but he cheered up pretty fast. Chie then called Teddie cute which led to Youske almost digging his own grave again "Is he cute? What do you think, Kanji?" He asked. "Huh? What are you asking me for?" Kanji asked kinda surprised. "Well, I was just wondering if he was your type." Youske explained, and I smack him again. "What was that for.!?" He shouted at me. "Ohhh... I get it. What you're really asking is... "Will you please beat the shit out of me, Kanji" He said pissed. "The same reason he's gonna put you in an unmarked grave in about twenty seconds." Yukiko then started laughing as we busted Youske's balls. Kanji wasn't amused. Youske then handed Youske a 1000 yen bill to Kanji and told him and Teddie to go get some Topsicles while the rest of us went to see Rise. Chie went on about how Youske was acting mature which led her to admitting that Teddie's clothes were put on his tab. While the two of them went at it Yu, Yukiko, and I went to Marukyu to see Rise.

When we got there we met the boy who we saw with Kanji before. The arguing duo had decided to stop arguing and follow us. The boy introduced himself as Naoto Shirogane. He had a guys name but I'm still pretty sure that no man looks that much like a woman. He told us he was actually a detective for the Inaba Police Department. How does one react to a teenager being a detective? They process what they were just told while the detective went on about how he came up with the same conclusion we had about the victims being tied to the TV. At least that's what I did. When Naoto finally left Rise came into the picture. She seemed pretty okay to me. In fact she seemed a little happier. "Are you all here to check up on me?" She asked us. "Well, yeah." Youske confirmed. Rise told us to follow her to the shrine for some reason. We didn't ask questions we just went with her.

When we got to the shrine Rise had told us that she just remembered being at her house, and that when she woke up she was inside the TV world. "Damn!" I shout to myself so no one hears me. Youske decided to bring up Naoto and Rise told us that he questioned her before. She told us that we just found her on the roof of Junes. Which was kinda sorta true. "Um... so..." She started nervously. Chie asked her what was up so she continued "Um... I-I really appreciate what you did for me..." What she said next and how she said it almost made me piss myself "Thank yo soooo much! I love you guys!" I mean literally ten seconds ago she was all melancholy the next thing I know she scares the shit out of me and chippers up without warning! Don't get me wrong it was nice to see her like this but holy shit she scared me! She apologized if she sounded weird because she lost touch with the real her. We just told her to do whatever feels natural. Chie had suddenly reminded me that I had the glasses for her. Considering this was the first time I was giving someone a real pair of glasses I didn't know what the hell to say. I didn't even know why Ted gave these to me and not Yu. I just stood in place think of how to welcome her to the team when she asked "Would you be struggling without my help?" I answer in a smartass way "Slightly." She then continued "I can help you in that world, right? With my power. So wouldn't it be better if I joined the team?" I shook my head no. She seemed said at my response. Until I walked up to her and handed her the glasses and said "It probably be the best thing for this team if you joined." She lit up like a lightbulb. "These are kinda proof that you're one of us." Youske said. I told her how the glasses help her see through the fog in the other world. She thanked us for letting her join. "I'll be going to Yasogami High, starting tomorrow. But I don't have any friends yet, so don't ignore me, alright? I do owe you my life so... you know..." She pleaded. I laughed and said with a big stupid grin "No worries, we're all on big weird family. And if anyone bothers ya, give me a shout and I'll make sure that the next thing they see is a heart monitor." She was kinda surprised at my response as she said "W-Wow... I didn't know you were so cool, Michael." 'I may have fucked up.' I think to myself.

"This sure is a rough time to transfer here, though. The killings, King Moron's death. All that, and exams are coming up soon, too." Youske reminded us of exams. I proceeded to slam my head against the nearest and hardest object as I say "Fuck. Exams. Fuck. School. Fuck. Everything." Rise started to laugh "I almost got killed by those monsters. Compared to that exams are nothing." I stood up and said with a red spot on my forehead "If that's what you think than you've never taken a test in your life." We decided to talk about the case tomorrow at Junes. Kanji finally joined us and told us how Teddie ate five Topsicles. Since he didn't have anywhere to stay, Youske decided to take him back to his place. "We're all done talking already! Let's go, Michael!" Rise said clinging to my arm suddenly. 'Oh fuck I did fuck up! She's fallen for me! Damn my kind nature!'

* * *

**I didn't want to put Michael in Yu's place like that but I had some funny shit that I just had to type. Anyway in the next chapter the case moves forward. Also if any of you saw my Rosario Vampire story and liked it and are sad to hear it was banned, don't worry because I plan to eventually rewrite it and hopefully next time I won't get a shit ton of flames where people say it sucks just because it's OC centric. I can't say when I'll put it up, but it should be back up within a few weeks 2 months at the latest.**

**Next Time: The Culprit**


	18. Chapter 18

Chapter 18: The Culprit

**I only own my OC**

**GREAT NEWS! My family's out of my house and I can update more often again! And I want to let everyone know ahead of time I may only get a few chapters in over summer break cause I'm going to visit my family in my hometown and my grandmothers house has little to know internet. So bear with me during that time. Now then...**

**On with the show!**

* * *

It was the day after King Moron's death and everyone at school was exploding about how he was killed. I had my head down on my desk and tried to take a nap, but couldn't. I soon heard the door to our class open and I saw who I assumed was our new home room teacher. "Gooooood mornin'." She announced in a happy tone. "I'm Noriko Kashiwagi, your new class teacher starting today. You all probably heard already, but now that Mr. Morooka has passed away... I'll be taking good care of you instead." She finished with a disturbing giggle. I already got weird vibes from this woman. "Okay, why don't we start off with a moment of silence for Mr. Morooka. Close your eyes, everyone." I did as she instructed and accidentally finally fell asleep. I was out cold until the bell finally rang. I guess everyone was too busy to bother to wake me up. But Youske wasn't to busy to draw a moustache on my face, the fucking dick he is.

"Now that you're awake, we're about to head to Junes. C'mon." Youske told me as I tried to erase Youske's handiwork. When he wasn't looking as we left I decided to tape a note to his back that I wrote before we left that said "I love dicks!" He didn't suspect a thing.

We all met at the food court under, I guess, a canopy of some kind. "Ugh... Finals are next week... Blegh!" Chie said in disgust before we talked about the case. But I had to agree with her, finals are gonna be a bitch. "It's been a while since I failed any subjects." Once again I agreed with Chie.

"Yeah if by "a while" you mean "all the time."" Youske said sarcastically. He wasn't wrong though. Chie was a great gal, but not the smartest of us. Yu has that position filled.

"Sh-Shut up! Like you've ever seen my scores!" Chie said causing me to slap forehead.

"Chie, everyone's seen your scores. They post our scores in front of everyone on the billboard at school, remember? How do you think everyone knows how smart Yu is with the top score, and how above average I am with 85%?" I say reminding Chie that our scores are public.

"But Chie always has above-average marks in the subjects that she doesn't fail!" Yukiko said kinda supporting Chie.

"Yeah all one of them?" I say which earned me a punch in the head by a pissed Chie. "Hey I was kidding! I know you have at least two good subjects!" I got punched again.

"Shut up!" She demanded.

"Yes ma'am." I say in pain. Rise then started laughing "It's not funny Rise! She punches like an MMA fighter!"

"Sorry... I'm not laughing at you. It's just... I thought it would take me a while to make any friends at my new school." She revealed to us.

"Too bad we met under such awful circumstances." Chie said.

"Circumstances that almost got us killed." I mutter under my breath, but still loud enough for Chie to hear and punch me again. "OW! Stop hitting me, dammit! Is this how Youske feels everyday!?" I ask rhetorically but Youske still nodded yes.

"Oh yeah... What do you guys think about King Moron's case?" Youske asked finally getting to the heart of the matter. "He didn't show up on the Midnight Channel even once."

"If this person had been inside the TV, I would have sensed it." Teddie finally spoke up. I almost forgot that he was here. "My nose isn't as sharp now, but I can tell that much."

"But they found the body on a foggy day again, right? They said on the news that the crime scene was just the way it was for that announcer and Saki." Chie said. It was pretty weird, King Moron didn't fit the pattern we had come up with in any way shape or form.

"I really wonder about the culprit's motives... Why was Mr. Morooka targeted?" Yukiko asked.

"Hope it wasn't personal, 'cause there's way too many people who hated King Moron's guts." Kanji said.

"But didn't you say it's people who get famous on TV who are targeted? If the killer's choosing targets by watching TV, I picture him as someone who doesn't know the victims at all. I don't think it's worth trying to figure out motives for that type. There are too many people who hold grudges against you for no reason, even if you've never met them before." Rise did have a point. I mean there are plenty of people I hate back home who I don't even know anything past their first names.

"Haha... You sound like you speak from experience, Rise. But with King Moron, he didn't appear on the Midnight Channel or the regular TV. Uurgh! I don't get this at all!" Chie said getting annoyed that we weren't getting anywhere.

"Man, two victims in a row from our school... That's gotta set off the police's alarm bells. They're not gonna leave any stones at school unturned." Kanji was right, by now the cops probably think that the killer has something to do with the school.

"Y'know, to be honest... Somewhere deep inside, I thought maybe King Moron was the killer." Youske revealed.

"I gotta say... That thought had crossed my mind once or twice. I mean he was a big asshole who didn't seem to give two shits about anyone but himself, and we've all heard him say at least once that someone deserves to die. But now that he was killed by the actual culprit, I fell like a bigger asshole than he was." I say with a sad expression. Rise put her hand on my shoulder to try to cheer me up. It didn't fail, but it didn't make me feel much better.

"He was a capital-A asshole, but that doesn't justify killing him. And not just King Moron... I feel sorry for all the victims... I can't forgive the killer no matter what!" I nodded in agreement to what Youske said. I doubted King Moron so now I'm gonna try to make things right by putting his killer in the slammer. Maybe with a black eye and a few broken ribs.

"Well we'll do what we can, for King Moron's sake too! At this rate, you have to figure that the killer has something to do with the school, right? So why don't we split up and-"

"That won't be necessary." A familiar voice cut off Chie. When we turned around we all saw the tiny detective himself, Naoto.

"Y-You..." Kanji said recognizing the short guy.

"There is no need to examine the case of Mr. Morooka any further." Naoto revealed.

"Wh-Why's that?" Chie asked. But deep down I'm sure she knew, we all knew, what the kid ment.

"Apparently, the police have found a suspect. It would be best to let them handle the case from here." Youske asked how he knew this. It turned out that Naoto wasn't just any detective, he was a detective sent from the prefectural police to help solve the case. That meant, this fucker was a pro at crime investigation.

"What!?" Youske asked jumping out of his seat.

"They found a suspect!? Who is it!?" Chie asked once again causing me to facepalm. There was no way he'd tell us who the suspect in this case was, that was like confidential information. Sure he'd tell us there was a suspect but he wouldn't tell us the name. You'd have to be dumber than Adachi to give out information like that.

"As to his name, I haven't been informed." Okay so he wouldn't tell us because even he didn't know who it was. "  
I do know... that he is a high schooler."

"Called it!" I say cutting him off.

"It isn't public knowledge yet, but he isn't a student of your high school. It seems they are quite confident that this boy is the killer. They have testimonies directly linking him with the incident. I expect it's only a matter of time before he is apprehended. Soon this case will be solved, and your town will once again be its peaceful, rustic self." This kid knew how to piss a guy off. He pretty much just said to our faces that once the killer's caught, Inaba will be shitty again. Sure that's what I thought when I first came to town but I've grown to love this town, I wish I was born here instead of in America.

"Alright... So why come tell us? That's confidential info right? Why run right here and spill it?" Youske asked.

"Your "game" will soon reach its end. I felt that I should at least let you know-" I cut him off by getting off my seat and moved towards him to PUNCH HIM IN THE FUCKING FACE!

"You think this is a game to us!? This is a lot of things but a game is not one of them. A matter of life and death, the reason our teacher is dead, the reason you're here, all of these are what this case is! But this is not a game!" I shout as Naoto rubbed the area where I just punched him.

"You don't deny, then, that you have involved yourselves in the matter? Well, no matter. I have no reason to say anything further." Naoto said completely ignoring my rant. I almost punched him again except Yu and Kanji held me back this time.

"A game? Aren't you the one who thinks of this as a game?" Rise asked a little pissed. Naoto was shocked at Rise's sudden outburst. "I don't care if you're a special investigator or an amateur sleuth... All you're doing is solving mysteries. What could you possibly know about us? You're the one who's playing a game here."

"One of the victims... She meant a lot to. How could I possibly treat this like a game?" Youske asked remembering the how Saki, the second victim in the case, was killed.

"You see? You don't know anything about us. You may think you do, but what you think you know, is nothing more than just a false deduction. So until you get that through your thick skull, fuck you." I say as the guys release me.

"Plus... We made a promise." Youske said motioning towards Teddie.

"Y-Y-Youske..." Teddie said touched by Youske's words.

"A game... That may be quite true." Naoto said with the slightest bit of regret.

"Wh-Why so understanding all of a sudden?" Chie asked.

"Oh, I get it. I was wondering why you'd be wandering around like this when the police have a suspect. What, did they get rid of you now that they have their man? Is that why you came here? You were lonely?" Youske asked in a mocking tone.

"Detectives normally aren't involved with arrests. And we never harbor any special emotions regarding a case either. Still... It is rather unfortunate that people are only attentive so long as our services are required. But then, I'm accustomed to it." He said in a sad tone. Kanji had seemed to be thinking about what he was saying. "Much of this case was perplexing, but its solution was surprisingly simple. Well then I'll be going now." He then left the scene.

"What was that about? He just said his piece and left?" Now Chie was thinking about what he had said earlier about the cops having a suspect. "He said they have a suspect... but is this really gonna solve everything?"

"I kinda have my doubts. Nothing with a case like this is that simple. You don't need to be as smart as Narukami to figure that out." I say revealing my doubts. We decided to call it a day.

On my way to the bus stop, I ran into who? You guessed it, Marie. She turned around and noticed my pissed expression "Who pissed you off?" She asked me.

"Some asshole was talking shit to me and my friends about the case so I decided to knock him down a couple pegs." I say raising the hand I punched Naoto with. Her eyes widened for some reason.

"What the hell did you do to your hand you stupididiot!?" When I looked at my hand I saw that some of Naoto's blood was on it.

"Wow I didn't even know I hit him that hard." I say nonchalantly.

Once Marie calmed down he said to me "Hey, I've decided I want you to help me with my memories."

"Sorry Marie, but I can't I gotta study for my finals next week. But once that's over I promise I'll come right to you to help you get your memories back." I say.

"Fine. But remember, you promised." I laughed a little because she sounded like a little kid the way she said that.

* * *

**Time skip: After finals**

"Aaaaaah, we're finally free!"Youske celebrated because it was time for SUMMER BREAK! As Rise and Kanji walked up to us Youske continued "Hey, why don't we go somewhere during summer vacation. My motorcycle's back from the shop."

"Hey, you guys have motorcycles!? Lucky you!" Rise said impressed at our awesomeness.

"You're scooter's fixed!?" Kanji asked. I was just as surprised as he was. I may not have seen what went down that day but when I saw Hanako I thought it'd take forever to piece Youske's scooter back together. "I'm surprised they got it back after... Hanako, was it?" He asked. I nodded.

"Did something happen with Youske and Hanako?" Chie asked.

"He was strikin' out with the ladies and got his scooter busted up." Kanji explained.

"Whoa! Youske's after Hanako!?" Chie asked.

"Yep! The guy's got a huge hard on for her." I say pissing off Youske.

"I-I'll back you up!" Yukiko said. Back him up on what.

"I wasn't talking about anything like that!" He shouted at the girls. He then pointed at me "And you shut up! You weren't even there!" He calmed down a little and continued "I was saying we should go somewhere over summer vacation, like the beach. It'd be a pain to go by train, but a motorcycle..." I was liking where this was going. I pretty much lived next to the beach back home.

"Hm, I haven't been to the beach in a long time either." Yukiko said.

"The bright sun, the glistening waves, that luscious scent dripping off from nearby stands, the dripping of meat juices." Chie said. She was sounding like a poet or something but when she mentioned meat juices, I couldn't help but laugh.

"Is food all you can think about?" Youske said having enough of Chie's meat addiction.

"Hey, why don't we get our licenses too? It's just a written test, right?" Rise asked.

"We can't. We're to young." Kanji explained.

"Aww, sorry Kanji! But my birthday was last month, so I'm sixteen now." Rise bragged.

"Hey that's cheating!" Kanji complained.

"Aging is cheating?" I ask sarcastically.

"Ohh, but sitting behind Michael sounds great too. I wanna squeeze in close!" Rise said. 'OH DEAR GOD! I WISH I HAD A SCOOTER NOW!'

"It's supposed to be for work, but there's a scooter at the inn!" Yukiko revealed.

"We got one as a gift at the office that's just sitting around. I bet I could borrow it if I asked! I'd have to call my manager though." Rise said in a sad tone. We could tell that she didn't want anything to do with the idol business.

"Huh. This is actually working out? How about you, Chie?" Youske asked.

"A scooter, huh?" She asked.

"It can be any kind as long as it's lower than 50cc." Youske explained.

Chie pondered about it before she responded "Then I might be in luck... One of our relatives loves motorcycles! Maybe he has a scooter I can borrow."

"Whoa... This might really happen! Let's all get our licenses and hit the beach together!" Youske said.

"Hold on. What about Teddie?" Kanji asked reminding us of our loose end.

"Hmm. If he doesn't move around he could pass as luggage." Youske suggested the worst suggestion I've ever heard.

"That's stretchin' it a little." Kanji said.

"It's be fine. If we can't get him on with one of us, we'll just strap on some wheels and tow him." Yukiko started laughing at Youske's god awful suggestions.

"Teddie... on wheels... Heehee... Rollerskates! Ahaha... It's perfect!"

"I've made up my mind. I'm gonna get my license! The beach, huh? I've gone before for pinup shoots, but it's been a while since I went for fun!" Rise cheered. Youske started baballing like an idiot about how he's see Rise in a swimsuit. Rise then asked me the one question I hoped she didn't ask "Hey, who are you looking forward to seeing in a swimsuit, Michael?"

"Umm... uhhh... I don't know. I'm sure all you girls will look great anyway." I say hoping to get a positive response. All I got was a lot of blushing from each of the girls. Anyway it was settled, we we're going to the beach!

Once school was, finished we saw that it was raining and we all decided to check the Midnight Channel. Even though the killer was caught we just wanted to make sure that we were really in the clear.

When I got back to the inn I stared at my TV. When it came on I saw a boy in an orange long-sleeved shirt and blue sweatpants. He had black hair and the creepiest eyes I've ever seen. I mean he had no fucking pupils! He said to the audience watching "You all think you can see me? You all think you know everything about me?" He laughed a sinister laugh and continued "Then try and catch me."

"Like I said it's never that easy with a case like this."

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**Hope you enjoyed this chapter. Leave me a review telling me what you thought and I'll see you in the next chapter where we chase the culprit.**

**Next time: The Worst Video Game Ever**


	19. Chapter 19

Chapter 19: Not Worthless

**Only own my OC**

**I decided to change the name of this chapter cause I'm going all out on this one. Now before we start I'd like to start with an update on my Rosario Vampire story. I'll start reposting it by the end of next week and I'll be rewriting it completely and be going for a totally different plot than I originally planned out when I first started. Now let's get this chapter done shall we?**

**On with the show!**

* * *

It was finally time for summer break and what did I have to do on the very first fucking day? Go ahead guess, I dare you! You give up? I had to catch a fucking murderer! Seriously he couldn't show himself before summer break!? Whatever.

The next day, after the whole thing with the midnight Channel the night before, the team met up at the usual spot at Junes. "Okay, Rise and Teddie are checking out the other side, so we'll go ahead and start the meeting." Youske announced to us. "Now, about what happened last night... You guys all saw it, right?" He asked us. We all nodded our heads.

"Yeah. Shit he said made my blood boil. That mumbling of his, and those fish-like eyes pissed me off even more. Who the hell is he?" Kanji asked.

"I get the feeling that he might just be our serial killer." I answer.

"If he is the killer than why was he inside the TV? He must know that, without Teddie, he can't get out, right?" Yu asked me. Gotta say it was a good question. A question I was hoping he'd ask me.

"Isn't it obvious?" I ask just to make sure he wasn't fucking with me. Yu and the others just shook their heads. I sighed out of dumbfoundedness and said "Okay, let me run this scenario by you. The killer had been killing people by throwing them into the TV. When the fog clears on the other side the fog appears here with a dead body. And the police hadn't found any evidence that pointed to a suspect. His first two attempts succeeded. But when Yukiko was thrown in she eventually came out alright, same with me, Kanji, and Rise. Now put yourself in the killers shoes, what would you do if your victims stopped dying and you wanna kill King Moron, but you can't use the TV and risking him coming out alive? Answer. You kill him on our side. Now the cops can point their fingers at you, the killer." Once I explained it, everyone came to the same conclusion.

"So... you're saying he went into the other world to dodge the cops?" Kanji asked. I nodded with a smile that they understood what I was driving at. "Ohhhh... So that's why he said, "Catch me if you can..." Wow Mike, you're smarter than you make yourself out to be!" He complimented.

"Well once I had some time to think about it, the conclusion of him going into the TV to escape made sense." I say with a laugh.

"We still don't know why he targeted people who were shown on TV... But if he had a personal grudge against Mr. Morooka, that explains one thing. With a strong enough motive, wouldn't he forsake the untraceable TV method and try to kill Mr. Morroka on his own? If you think about it that way, it sort of makes sense why Mr. Morroka died without appearing on TV." Yukiko said.

"You're saying he killed King Moron because he hated him personally? Would he really risk being caught and put in prison for a personal grudge? Come on no one hates someone so much they'd go to prison." I say while thinking to myself 'I should know.'

"I don't know." Yukiko said a little perplexed. "But I wonder what that boy's going to do, now that he's in there... With Teddie on this side, there's no way for him to get out." She wondered. I was kinda curious as to what he would do now too. I mean, what could he do in there? The only things to kill in the TV world are Shadows, and only if you have a Persona. If you don't you're a Shadow's lunch.

"Y-You don't think... he's gonna get desperate and end it all?" Chie asked kinda nervous at the thought of that outcome. "He did look depressed, like it was the end of the world."

"Are you saying he's gonna kill himself? If that's what you're thinking, I'm gonna say no." I say.

Youske nodded in agreement and said "Yeah. The killer has to know that people have come back to this side. I can see missing Yukiko, Kanji, or Mike. But Rise, a celebrity... There's no way the killer wouldn't know she's still alive. So that means he knows he knows there's a way out of the TV world. As for the rest... We'll just have to ask him face to face."

"Yeah! Right after we catch him and break his ribs!" I say determined to finally catch this dickhead. Rise came rushing towards our table, hopefully to tell us that her and Teddie found him. Sadly they couldn't. They only knew he was in there, but not where he was. We decided to end the meeting and start looking for information on our suspect. But...

* * *

**Time skip: 3 days later**

THREE DAYS! THREE FUCKING DAYS! That's how much of my summer vacation I missed looking for any leads on who the guy in the TV was. But after many, many hours of investigating... I got shit. I hadn't come up with anything. None of us had anything to help Rise find the killer. As I sighed in disappointment, my phone started ringing. It was Yu. "Please tell me you have a lead, bro." I pleaded.

"I got the perfect lead. I've got his name and a photo of him." He responded with pride in his voice.

"Sweet I'll meet you and the others in the TV world." I hung up and headed for Junes.

When I got to the TV the team goes through, I was greeted by a fox. Yu had found this fox quite a while ago, and has since been helping us on the other side. It had these leaves that restored our stamina. It came in handy a lot of times. Without this fox our rescue attempts would probably take much longer than a day. I noticed the fox had a note in it's mouth. It was addressed to me. I took the note from its mouth and inside was nothing. I sighed realizing the fox just trolled me by making me think I got an important letter. "Let's just go join the others, you little bastard." I say. I entered the TV with the fox right behind me.

When we reached the other side I realized the inside of the envelope the fox gave me was glowing blue. I looked into the envelope and realized that the fox didn't troll me. It brought me a Persona card. When I grabbed the card the image of the Persona flashed in my head. It appeared to be a viking of some sort. He was six feet tall, had a hatchet in his left hand, and a battle-axe in his right hand, he wore green tattered jeans and his bare chest had a tatoo of a nordic dragon, he had a medium length black beard, and short, military style black hair. His voice rang in my head...

**I am thou, thou art I. You seem like a strong soul. I shall lend you my strength. I am Sven, The King's mercenary.**

I looked at the fox and said "Sorry about calling ya a little bastard, little buddy." The fox yipped and we walked towards the others. "Alright let's catch a fucker!" I say ready to finally close this case. Yu pulled out the photo he told me about and handed it to Rise. The name on the photo was Mitsuo Kubo.

"That's him alright... It's definitely the guy on the Midnight Channel!" Youske remarked. "It's settled, then. He is the killer... and he's in here now!"

"This guy came to our shop before..." Rise revealed in a scared tone. "Was he... spying on me? Oh my God... I really was being targeted." With every new sentence she got even more scared.

"Dammit! Freakin' punk!" Kanji shouted rather pissed.

"Hey, I've seen him before too... Hmm.." Chie wondered. Then she realised where she knew him from, "Oh, now I remember! Yukiko, it's that one guy!" She said.

"That one guy?" Yukiko asked. Can't blame her, there are a lot of guys in the world and Chie didn't even bother to explain what she was talking about until AFTER Yukiko asked.

"Back in April, remember!? He suddenly came and started hitting on you!" Chie explained.

"Oh, him! The dude who got served by Yukiko in front of the school!" Youske realised. I was kinda shocked to hear that Yukiko denied someone a date with her in front of the whole school. That's funny as hell! "Man, Chie, how'd you remember something like that!?" Youske asked.

"Well, that was the first time he talked to her, but I remember he was always following her around." Chie explained. But Yukiko was still confused as hell.

"Um... Sorry, who are we talking about?" She asked.

"The dude who came up to you at the school gates and called you Yuki!" Youske said kinda annoyed. It then seemed to finally hit Yukiko.

"Ohhhh... Uh, really?" I just grabbed the bridge of my nose because I've abused my forehead enough the past few weeks.

"Wait, did he kidnap Yukiko to get back at her for rejecting her." Chie asked. One motive down.

"Um... I didn't really reject him." Yukiko defended.

"He came up to me while I was busy working and asked, "Don't the biker gangs bother you?" Just going on and on about how biker gangs can't do anything unless they're in a pack and stuff... He seemed to be the type who just keeps talking, whether you like it or not... if that makes sense. I usually treat those people politely so they don't get offended, but I was so tired that I kinda ignored him. Was that why I was kidnapped?" Rise finally explained. Two motives down. Even if the second one was a shitty one. When Rise mentioned biker gangs everyone looked at Kanji.

"Huh? Wait, I'm not a biker! Ugh... That damn special report... So that's why I got dragged into this." Kanji said. That's three motives.

"You know, I heard he's been saying stuff about that announcer's affair, too. Lots of muttering about how women who cheat on their husbands should be executed." Chie said. Four motives.

"Sounds like it's all coming together... Well, it's time for a showdown!" Youske said. But wait a sec...

"What about me? Why was I targeted? I've never even seen this Mitsuo guy." I ask.

"Actually... Now that you mention it, I've heard him talking shit about how foreigners are worthless assholes who should just go back to wherever they came from." Kanji explained. Five motives. Five motherfucking motives. One motive for each victim. Even if some were shitty. We couldn't come up with a motive for why he killed Saki though. But we figured we'd just ask him after we kick his ass. Rise summoned her Persona, Himiko, and started scanning. She pointed us in the direction where he supposedly was and followed.

We soon came upon the worst excuse for a video game setup I have ever seen! "Okay now I'm gonna show this guy a real video game before I break his spine. Hell I'm gonna break his spine just for not knowing what a real game is!" I shout. "Why is it a game anyway?" I ask.

"Well he did say "Try and catch me"... I guess he thinks of all this as a game." Youske said.

"Okay now I'm breaking his spine AND his hands so he can't play a game again. If he plays games like these I'll be doing him a favor!" I say.

"Let the games begin!" Yu said.

"Dude, I thought you were better than that. Just leave the smartass lines to me, okay?" I ask.

"Gotta admit... all guys love games." Youske said.

"And all girls love Teddie." Teddie said. I just shook my head no. We then headed into the "video game" dungeon.

We met plenty of enemies along the way. We even had to go up against a Megazord wannabe. But this dungeon was the thing we were tired of. We came up to a floor where we had to go in a certain direction where it would teleport us in that direction. Took us about an hour to get to the front door because we had to return to the beginning of the floor TWICE! But the most annoying part was when we got to one floor where the floor would rotate us in a completely different direction, so that took us about three hours to get out of that area. When we finally made it to the final floor... The door was locked. "NO NO NO NO NO NO! DON'T YOU FUCKING DO THIS TO ME YOU PIECE OF SHIT! DO NOT MAKE ME GO THROUGH THIS HELL AGAIN BECAUSE I HAD TO FIND A GODDAMN MOTHERFUCKING KEY!" I shout at the door at the top of my lungs. But my nightmare came true. We had to go back to find a damn key. Turned out there was a subboss waiting for us on the rotating floor area. We finally made it to the door after another three hours of madness. We were welcomed by a black hand with a face on it. When we went up to it it summoned another hand, but this one was white.

"PERSONA!"

Yu started us off by having Izanagi attack with Mazionga. It did some damage. Youske was next to hit them with Magarula. The white hand quickly dodged the attack, but the black one took the full impact. Chie tried to attack the black hand with Black Spot but she missed. Kanji also missed when he tried to attack with Kill Rush. But Yukiko ended our miss streak with Maragion. Finally I showcased Sven to attack with Mighty Swing. They were both almost toast... until the white hand HEALED THEM BOTH! Now we were back to square one. This time we weakened them as much as possible with the stat decreasing skills we had. Yukiko eventually finished them both with Maragion. "Finally, they're dead! But where's the key?" I asked. I looked around and saw a chest. When I opened it inside was an item called The Orb of Darkness. We then made our way back to the final floor. "Okay you son of a bitch! Open!" I say holding up the orb.

"Look! There he is!" Chie pointed out the killer. We ran towards Mitsuo who had been getting better acquainted with his Shadow while we were bumblefucking around his shitty game world.

"You Mitsuo!? You better be ready to pay, you bastard!" Kanji shouted.

"Wait, Kanji... Something's not right!" Youske said. Mitsuo had not noticed us enter and started arguing with his Shadow.

"Everyone gets on my nerves... That's why I did it!" He shouted at his Shadow. "What do you think of that!? Say something, dammit!" The Shadow did nothing but breathe. "Nobody even thought of me after the first two people. That's why I went for the third one! I killed them!" He confessed. The Shadow just breathed heavily again. Gotta say that breathing was creeping me out. "Wh-What are you all quiet for?" He asked.

**"Because... I feel nothing."** The Shadow finally responded. His voice was creepier than Teddie's Shadow's voice.

"What're you talking about!? Make sense dammit!" Mitsuo shouted, demanding a straight answer.

"What the? Which one's the Shadow?" Chie asked.

"Gee, I don't know Chie. Maybe the one with the yellow eyes, distorted voice, and black mist coming out of its asshole!" I say. I wasn't pissed at what she asked, I was just tired of this place.

**"I... have nothing... I am nothing... And you... are me."** The Shadow said.

"What? What do you mean!? I'm... I'm not nothing." Mitsuo argued.

"No! If this keeps up..." Yukiko started. Mitsuo finally realised that him and his Shadow weren't the only two in the room. He turned around and finally acknowledged our existence.

"Wh-Who are you guys!? How'd you get in here? Dammit, who the hell are you!? What're you doing here!?" He asked us.

"Shut the hell up! We came after you!" Kanji yelled.

"Are you the killer?" Chie asked. Mitsuo just started laughing manaically.

"Of course I am? I'm the one behind everything!" He turned back to his Shadow "I don't give a damn what this imposter's saying! Hahaha, you hear that!? You have nothing to do with me! Get outta my sight!" He said denying his Shadow. He turned back to us and said "That goes for the rest of you, too... Why'd you chase me all the way here!? I'll kill you! I'll kill all of you! I can do it, you know... I can do anything!" He yelled.

**"So you don't accept me."** The Shadow behind Mitsuo said. Mitsuo collapsed to the ground and the Shadow transformed into a baby. I know what I said. It transformed into a baby with a huge head and random symbols floating around.

"PERSONA!"

That's when everything went black.

When I opened my eyes I saw nothing. Only darkness. Miles and miles of darkness. "What the hell? Where am I? Yu!? Guys!? Where are you guys!?" I called out to my friends but no one answered. "What the hell is going on here?" I ask myself over and over again. I then started to hear voices. Not the voices of my teammates, but the voices of my friends back in America.

The first one came from my former best friend Cole. "Do I know you?" I knew Cole since kindergarten and he was awesome. But when we reached third grade and I tried to talk to him he'd always ask me that. I always thought he was just screwing me, but he wasn't. He forgot all about me. He forgot about our friendship.

The next voice I heard was from my friend Josh. "Beat it dude!" Josh was my next best friend. We met in fourth grade and him and I were a better pair than when Cole and I were best friends. But when we reached middle school he grew into a thug and started smoking and drinking. I wasn't surprised he forgot about me, but that didn't mean I wasn't sad when he turned his back on me.

The last voice I heard was from my best friend who was a girl Shayla "Leave me alone." Just like Cole I knew Shayla since we were in kindergarten. I actually once believed that I loved her. Imagine that, a kindergartener in love. The thought of it today still makes me laugh. What was even funnier was the fact that she loved me too. But just like Josh she changed completely. She knew my name, but she forgot that she once loved me. To this day I sometimes cry about it.

As I hear my former friends repeat the words I've heard them say for years I get on my knees, cover my ears, and started crying. Even though my ears were covered, I could still hear the voices. I realized that they were being played inside of my head. "WHY THE HELL ARE YOU MAKING ME SUFFER LIKE THIS!?" I shout into the darkness. "HAVEN'T THESE WORDS MADE ME SUFFER ENOUGH, DAMMIT!? JUST TELL ME WHY I'M HEARING THESE THINGS!"

**"Because you are like me. You are empty, pathetic, worthless. All of your friends have abandoned you, and they don't plan on coming back, and you know it." **I hear Mitsuo's Shadow say from behind me.

"YOU BASTARD!" I shout getting on my feet and start charging the Shadow so I could hit him. He just slapped me away.

**"You have nothing. You are nothing. You. Are. Worthless."**

"SHUT UP!" I say extending my hand.

"PERSONA!"

I tried summoning Rebellion, but I couldn't. My Persona card just turned into a regular piece of paper. I shouted "Persona" over and over again, but none of my Personas would come. Not even the new ones I obtained and fused with Igor's help.

**"You have nothing to live for. No one cares for you. You have no reason to live. Allow me to end your suffering. Forever." **The Shadow said grabbing my neck, attempting to strangle me.

As my life started to fade once again I hear a voice. It was Marie's. "Youstupidliar! You told me that you won't come close to dying again! You promised! Don't you dare die you idiot!" She shouted. I hadn't noticed but my Persona card started glowing a bit.

I then heard another voice. It was Youske's. 'Mike! Mike! Give me your hand!" He demanded.

"No." I managed to say. "I do have something... to live for." I reached out towards a light. "I'm not... worthless."

I found myself back in the TV world. Youske was pulling me out of the Shadow's blocked armor. He finally managed to get me out. We fell into Jiraiya's arms. "You okay there, bro?"

"I am now. Thank you... Youske."

The Shadow cried out in anger sending more blocks at us. When we landed everyone was relieved to see me in one piece.

"Michael!" Chie shouted letting everyone know I was back.

"Well hey there, dude." Kanji said in his usual tone.

"Mikey you're back!" Teddie said happily.

"Glad you're safe." Yukiko said relieved.

"You had us going there, buddy." Yu said putting a hand on my shoulder.

"Is everything okay? Are you hurt?" Rise asked concerned.

"I'm better than fine now. Let's kick his ass."

"PERSONA!"

I shattered the card and sent Rebellion charging towards the Shadow. He broke off some of the blocks surrounding it but it just started rebuilding. "No, not again!" Chie shouted.

"You can't take out the Shadow until you destroy its outer shell." Rise all started hitting him hard and heavy. We eventually revealed the Shadow within, but it started rebuilding again. Everyone sent their Personas to stop it. "Go on! Now's your chance Michael!" Rise said with excitement.

"Yeah, take him out!" Kanji demanded.

"Please get that guy!" Yukiko also ordered.

"Yeah, hit him good and hard!" Chie encouraged me.

"You can do it, Mikey!" Teddie encouraged as well.

"We'll let you take the final blow!" Yu and Youske said in unison extending their hands making fists.

I looked down momentarily and let the Shadow's words ring in my head. The words he said when he said I was worthless.

"I am... No longer worthless!"

**BGM: Break by Three Days Grace**

I sent Rebellion to attack. The Shadow attacked with Garudyne, Rebellion's weakness.

"Sven!" I shouted summoning the viking. Wind was something he was unaffected by. I had him shoot Agidyne at the Shadow. The Shadow blocked it.

"Fenrir!" I summoned another new Persona. It was a giant wolf with wild black fur, and claws that would make Wolverine jealous. The wolf roared and fired a Bufudyne beam. It did some damage.

"Shadowfighter!" This Persona wore armor similar the Knight on the cover of the Hammerfall albums without the helmet, revealing a black shadowy figure with long flowing white hair. He had two long swords on his shoulders and a great sword going down his spine. He raised his sword and brought down the thunder of Maziodyne. The Shadow countered with Agidyne.

"Black Gun!" I summon another Persona I had obtained while fighting in this dungeon. He was six feet tall, a revolver on both hips, a hunting knife on his right leg, and a Winchester rifle and black duster on his back. He wore a brown leather trench coat, an untucked white shirt and blue jeans with a few small holes in them. He had a short trimmed blonde beard and medium length black hair. He also had a few scars on his face. Fire was the thing he absorbed. That being said I was stronger now. The Shadow attacked with Bufula.

"Glacius!" This one was pretty much a giant made out of ice with icicles sticking out of it. Thanks to it I blocked the attack.

"Whoa! How many Personas has he been packing?" I hear Youske ask. I just continue with my onslaught.

"Black Knight!" This one is self explanatory plus a black horse with black fire surrounding it. It rapidly attacked with Garulas. The Shadow was furious. It cried out in anger again and sent blocks my way.

"White Knight!" The white version of Black Knight. It sliced the blocks in half, but the Shadow sent a stream straight towards me.

"Hercules!" I summoned the Greek god Hercules to block the attacks. He wore gold-plated armor with spikes on it and long black hair. He held a sword in his right hand and a shield in the other. He had two more swords strapped to his back. While the Shadow screamed in fury, letting his gaurd down, I summoned my final Persona...

"REBELLION!" He was sent in charging and slice the Shadow's head in two, causing it to return to its base state.

**BGM End**

After I stopped panting in exhaustion I saw that the real Mitsuo was awake. He demanded answers as to who we are and why we were here. "We came here to catch your scrawny ass." Kanji said.

"The police are after you. They think you're the guy who killed King Moron and the other two murders in town." Youske added.

"So is it true? Are you the asshole who's been killed those innocent people?" I asked pissed off.

He started laughing again and confirmed that he was the one who killed them. That's when his Shadow disappeared. It didn't become a Persona, it just vanished. Seeing this pleased Mitsuo, considering he was laughing like a maniac again. "Seeing as how you're the killer..." I then proceeded to beat the ever-loving piss out of him. I didn't pull any punches. I made sure that he felt the ultimate pain before he was sent to the slammer. We then left the TV world.

When we got out Youske called the cops. Adachi was the one to pick him up, and he seemed pretty happy putting him into his car. We held one final meeting at our usual spot. "It's finally over... Let's leave the rest to the police." Rise said relieved the cased was closed.

"My world will be peaceful again now." Teddie said happily.

"Well as peaceful a world filled with creepy fog and even creepier monsters can be." I say sarcastically

"We really went through a lot..." Yukiko said. And she was right. We had been though a lot. Rise included even though she wasn't with us that long. But from the time I got here I was met Death three times, and every time I managed to escape his cold grasp. I also got a special power, got my hair dyed, and made the best friends a guy could ask for. I was glad this case was over and I could live a normal life with the people I consider my family.

"Like scoring with guys!" Teddie remarked.

"Oh, come on... Will you ever let it go!?" Yukiko asked, fed up with Teddie bringing back that painful memory.

"What... Scoring with guys!?" Kanji asked. Hopefully that answered Youske's curiosity of whether not Kanji is gay. I have had enough of a lot of things during this experience but I couldn't take any more of Youske cryptically asking Kanji if he was gay.

"Y-You don't need to know the details. I'm sure you'd like for us to forget the sauna incident too... right Kanji?" Yukiko asked.

"I don't really care about the sauna but while we're at it can we forget about the hospital too please?" I pleaded.

"That's not fair... I wanted to see everyone else's too!" Rise said disappointed that she'll never be able to truly know what happened with each of us. We eventually got to the subject of what Youske's Shadow was like. Yu didn't give us a straight answer. Youske's experience was the only one that no one but those two knew about.

Rise suggested we have a party to celebrate the case closing. I actually liked that idea. What I didn't like though was the girls volunteering to cook something for Nanako for dinner tonight. That led to Teddie suggesting we have a cooking contest. Yu was unanimously appointed as the male representative.

Nanako told Yu that she wanted an omelette with fried rice. Yu, Youske, and I both prayed the girls didn't screw that up. None of us had even had Rise's cooking but I was still scared. I decided I'd represent the guy's team too. I wasn't a pro chef but my cooking wasn't a health hazard. When we got to Yu's house we were all greeted with a cheery Nanako. We all got right to cooking. Except Teddie who was keeping Nanako company. Yu, Youske, and I went over to see what was happening. Turns out that Ted had decided to stay in our world for a while because he promised Nanako to play with her. We didn't talk long because Rise smacked Youske aside and layed down a red omelette. Yukiko's looked somewhat normal, Chie's was oddly colored. Honestly mine and Yu's were the most normal looking. The guys and I decided to taste the omelette first to make sure it was safe for Nanako to eat. Here are my reactions to each on:

Rise's: "HOTHOTHOTHOTHOT! I NEED WATER! I NEED WATER FROM ANTARCTICA!"

Yukiko's: "How do you mix ingredients together to make the outcome taste like I'm eating air?"

Chie's: "At least I'm not out cold. Still nasty though."

Nanako, being the sweetheart she is, told each of the girls that their omelettes tasted good. But in the end Yu took home the gold with me taking the silver. Before we all left Youske told us about a festival being held at the shrine on August 20th and we made plans to go. With that we all went home.

When I got to the bus stop I ran into Marie. She appeared to be crying. "Marie?" I call. She turned around, saw that it was me, and she slapped me with all her might. "WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT FOR!?" I shout.

"You said that was a one time thing you blockhead! You lied!" She said.

"I'm sorry, Marie. I didn't mean to scare you like that. But I'm alive, and I'm not going anywhere anytime soon." I reassure her.

"Please, just don't die. Please." She pleaded.

"I won't die. I promise." I say pulling her into a hug.

"Can you help me with my memories tomorrow?" She asked. I nodded yes and got on the bus.

I discarded the bandages on my old injuries and wrapped up my new ones. Once I got into my bed I said "Maybe now I can be with her."

* * *

**That chapter took all day but it was worth it. Thank you vincent the vizard for your Persona suggestions (Sven, Shadowfighter, and Black Gun) Hope you don't mind me changing Shadowfighter a little bit but I couldn't come up with a name for your's. But anyway your support is always appreciated. So to all you readers leave me a review and tell me what you thought of this chapter. Next chapter Mike helps Marie with her memories.**

**Next Time: A Date With Marie**


	20. Chapter 20

Chapter 20: A Date With Marie

**Only own OC**

**We finally start hanging out with Marie. I've been waiting for this, have you? You haven't? Well who asked you. Just kidding I know you've been dreaming of this day.**

**On with the show!**

* * *

"Finally, I can do something normal for a change. The whole superhero gig was great, but even a hero needs a little downtime. And boy have I earned some." I say getting dressed. Today was the day I'd finally be able to help Marie regain her memories. "I sure hope I can help her somehow." I whisper. I wanted to help Marie to the best of my ability, but I wasn't sure if my best would be good enough. Nevertheless I had to try. I grabbed my keys and helmet and headed for the flood plain where Marie and I planned to meet. "God help me." I pray.

When I got there she was already waiting for me. "You're late!" She said as I walked over to her.

"Sorry kinda slept in." I apologized.

"So, about my memories... What do you think I should do?" She asked me. It seems like she had no idea on where to start and just hoped that I would know what to do. I scratched my head, pondering on where we could start, for a while.

"Are there any clues? Even the smallest thing could help us." I ask.

"No, nothing." With nothing to go on I didn't know what the fuck we were gonna do. "Like I said before, this is the only thing I remember." She then reached into her bag and pulled out the bamboo comb she showed me before. "If you remember, I told you that I had this when I first started remembering. Will this help?" She asked. I looked at the comb for a few seconds thinking of how it could help us.

"Is it sold somewhere?" I asked. If she bought this from somewhere, we could start there and see if we could get any leads past that.

"I don't know. Maybe if we can find something out if we find where I got it from." She repeated my thoughts.

"So what they say is right, great minds think alike." I say in my cocky tone.

"But this doesn't look like the ones at Junes. They don't look anything like this." I wasn't surprised she knew about Junes. Yu had told me that he showed her around town before I came here. "It seems older... Do you know any stores that might sell stuff like this?"

I thought about it for a while, until I remembered the perfect place to start searching. Kanji's family store. They must sell this kind of stuff. If not maybe we could find out where we could find something like this. "Kanji's store might know what to make of this."

"That old-timer's place? Hmmm... That's kinda surprising." Marie said.

"Old timer hahaha! That's a good one. I guess without the eyebrows he does look a little older. But yeah, he might know what to do with this." She nodded and we headed to Tatsumi Textiles.

When we got there both Rise and Kanji were in the shop. Seriously what the fuck was Rise doing here? "Yo welco- oh, Michael." Kanji greeted.

"Ooooh, Michael, what a coincidence! Oh Marie's with you too? I didn't know you two knew each other." Rise greeted.

"Yeah I kinda bumped into her my first day in town, and we've gotten pretty close." I explain to her how Marie and I met.

"Oh, I see. Wait... Don't tell me the two of you are on a date..." Rise said nervously. I had almost forgotten that she fell for me when we asked her to join the team. Thinking back on that day, I realise how badly I fucked up.

"Wh-What!? No, no! This isn't a date we just had to ask Kanji something!" I panic. This whole situation was getting a little embarrassing.

"Sheesh, don't scare me like that. Hey, Kanji! Michael wants to talk to you." Rise said relieved. What did she mean by don't scare her? It's not like her and I were dating. Sure she likes me but... Forget it.

"Huh? What's up?" Kanji asked.

Marie pulled out her comb and showed it to Kanji. "Do you know what this is? Tell me anything you know. Anything at all." She demanded.

"This thing? It's uh... It's a comb. A pretty damn old one." Kanji told her which made me slap my forehead once again.

"We know that already, we need to know something about it that we already don't know!" I say.

"That's a comb? It doesn't look like it's very easy to use, with that shape." Rise said.

"So, what do you want from me? You need me to figure out where this thing came from?" Kanji asked. Marie and I nodded simultaneously. "Er, I don't know anything, but..." He looked at Rise as to ask if she knew anything about the comb, but she shook her head no. "Hey! Mom! Come over here! Yo!" Kanji called his mother. Maybe we should have thought of his mother to begin with, now that I think about it.

"I hear you, I hear you. Don't shout so loud- Oh, hello. I haven't seen you in a while. Is this girl another of Kanji's friends?" She asked.

"She wanted to know about this comb. You know anything, Mom?" Kanji asked dodging the question. I was getting the feeling that Kanji may or may not be ashamed of us. We showed Kanji's mother the comb, but she told us that they didn't sell anything like it. She told us we'd have better luck asking a museum or a gallery

"Museum? Uh, so it's rare?" Rise asked what we were all thinking.

"Well... I don't know if it's rare, but it's definitely not something that would be sold around here." She explained.

"Huh? If it's not sold, than where is somebody gonna get one? C'mon lady, help us out here!" Kanji yelled. He seemed to be getting into this. A bit too much if you ask me.

"Don't talk to your mother like that!" She scolded her son. Man, Kanji's mom is pretty scary when she's pissed. "I'm sorry I couldn't be any help. But I've really never seen anything like this." Marie kept asking why she would have this comb. She thought it was given to her as a gift but Kanji's mom explained how a comb wouldn't make a good gift, no shit, and explained that a comb was pretty much a symbol of separation. I didn't really get it, I kinda blocked it out when she said some weird word, kushi or some shit like that. She left the room to tend to a customer.

""Pain" and "death," huh. Yeah, I guess I wouldn't want to give someone that." Kanji said agreeing with what his mother said.

"She said "separation"? I didn't know that combs are actually bad luck." Rise said.

"I didn't know combs had any kind of luck." I said agreeing with Rise. Marie repeated the word "separation", and started thinking about what Kanji's mom said. It looked to me if she started to remember something.

"Marie, are you alright? Does your head hurt." Rise asked, concerned.

"Whoa, you okay? Sit your ass down and get some rest." Kanji said in a panicy tone. He sounded like she was about to die or something.

"Did you remember something?" I asked, unable to hold my curiosity any longer.

"I don't know... But... There's something..." She shook her head before continuing "Ugh, it's gone. I can't remember... Something came up in my mind. I was about to recall it." Her expression darkened a little. Honestly mine kinda did too. This wasn't off to a good start.

"What, you can't remember? You don't remember anything about that comb?" Kanji asked. It was at that moment it occurred to me that we never mentioned Marie's amnesia to anyone.

"Huh? Wait a second. That's not your comb?" The way Rise said that made it sound like she tought that Marie stole it.

"Don't worry about it. That's my problem." Marie reassured them. She pulled out her comb again and said "This isn't a normal comb, huh? What did she say? A Moozium? A Galerry?" I laughed a little at her mispronunciation of those two words. It kind of reminded me how I struggled to say Junes on my first trip there. 'Maybe I'll remember something if we go to one of those. You help, too." She didn't ask, she ordered me. Either way I said I would. I'm a man of my word and plan to see this through to the end. Now that the case is over I have all the time in the world to help Marie. "I'm tired. I'm going home today, but let's continue this later." She then left the store and headed to the Velvet Room entrance on the wall next to Daidara's store.

"What's up with her?" Kanji asked.

"Marie's a bit mysterious... Michael, Marie's leaving!" Rise announced.

"I'm aware Rise. I'm still have the ability to see things." I remark sarcastically. I hung out with Kanji and Rise for the rest of the day before I decided to head home.

When I got home I flopped onto my bed and said to the ceiling "I know I can help Marie. I know I can! I just need time!" Good thing that time was all I had.

* * *

**Sorry for the short chapter but I'm gonna start the next one once I upload this one. From here on out the next few chapters are all my ideas since it's summer break now. That being said they may not be as long. But they'll still be good. In the next chapter my OC Karl finally returns and I'll be introducing another OC of mine.**

**Next Time: Showing Off**


	21. Chapter 21

Chapter 21: Showing Off

**Only own my OC's**

**Karl makes his comeback today and I introduce another new OC. So enjoy.**

**On with the show!**

* * *

It was the day after I hung out with Marie and I had nothing to do. I was just sitting in my room watching TV when my phone started to ring. It was the captain of the track team himself, Karl Sanders. I was suspecting he wanted yet another rematch considering every practice we'd start and finish with a race. We keep going back and forth on who's winning. Right now I was winning. "What's up, Karl?" I asked.

"Hey, Mike. I was going to get some grub at Junes, wanna join?" He asked me.

"Yeah, I've got no plans today. I'll meet you there." I hung up and started getting dressed.

When I got to Junes, Karl was waiting at the elevator. He wore a white tank top, blue jeans, a pair of blue running shoes, and a necklace with a strange but awesome design on it. "Yo, I was just about to head to the food court." He told me as I walked over to him. The elevator opened and we went into the food court. We ordered some pizza and chowed down. It wasn't anything special, but it was pepperoni pizza and it was good.

"Now that we've had our fill of chow, how bout we look around. I've got some extra cash that's burning a hole in my pocket." I suggest. He nodded and we first went to the electronics department. We started with the video games. "Let's see... Have it. Hated it. Outgrew it. Well hello, beautiful!" After what seemed like hours of looking I saw a copy of DMC: Devil May Cry. "Sold!" I say grabbing the game.

"Dude you're getting that? I heard it was awful." Karl said.

"People only hate it because they changed Dante's look. They didn't even pay attention to the story. You can't hate a game based on how the main character looks or how he's changed. I mean look at the Assassin's Creed series, they changed Desmond's face more often than Marvel changes the role of Bruce Banner as the Hulk." I retort.

"Well, I guess when you put it like that, you make a good point." He said finally agreeing with me.

We then headed over to the department that sold instruments, because I busted my high E string on my guitar and I needed a new one. When I found what I was looking for, I noticed a flyer on the counter. It appeared to be for a contest. The winner got a free instrument of their choice. It was scheduled to take place in a few hours. "Hey, is it to late to sign up for this yet?" I ask the clerk.

"No, sir. Anyone can sign up at anytime, except during the contest. Just fill out your name, instrument, and the song you'll be performing." He said handing me a sign up sheet.

"Yo Karl, I'll be right back. I gotta restring and retune my guitar and I'll be right back." Karl nodded and I went back to the Amagi Inn and got my guitar ready.

"You performing in the contest?" I hear an unfamiliar voice say behind me when I got back. I turned around and saw a boy around my age. He had black hair with red highlights that was average length. He appeared to be American like me. He wore a white shirt with two guitars crossing each other with the word "Rock" in the middle, black tight jeans, and black shoes. He obviously asked because of my guitar.

"Yeah, I'm in it. Are you?" I ask.

"Yep. I'm Anthony Jackson. Nice to meet ya." He introduced himself. I introduced myself as well and shook his hand. "Well, Mike... Good luck in the contest. You're gonna need it if you're going up against me." He taunted.

"Please, you're the one whose gonna need luck, Tony." I taunt back. We went separate ways and waited for the announcer to call either one of our names.

I met up with Karl again "Hey was that Anthony Jackson you were just talking to?" He asked me. I nodded and he said "Dude, that guys a legend at school. He's the best there is at playing the guitar. If you're up against him you may be in trouble." He warned me.

"I'm not afraid of losing to him. Plus, no one's heard me play, and I think I'm gonna take home the prize." I say confidently.

"Next up is, Anthony Jackson." The announcer called Tony's name.

He started playing his guitar and started playing a familiar tone. He played Chop Suey by System of a Down. With how popular that song is, I was getting a little scared. For some reason he wasn't singing any of the lyrics. I guess he couldn't play and sing at the same time. He strummed the last note and everyone started clapping. The announcer called me next. I grabbed my guitar and got on stage.

"Hey, everyone. My name is Michael Williams and I'm gonna be playing I Will Not Bow by Breaking Benjamin. Hope you guys like it." I plugged in my guitar to the amp and brought the microphone to my level. I made sure my guitar was in tune, then I started strumming. Thankfully I nailed the tapping introduction, because usually I suck at that. When I tapped the last note and started to sing.

_FALL!_

I played the opening notes and soon started singing again

_Now the dark begins to rise_

_Save your breath, it's far from over_

_Leave the lost and dead behind_

_Now's your chance to run for cover_

_I don't want to change the world_

_I just want to leave it colder_

_Light the fuse and burn it up_

_Take the path that leads to nowhere_

_All is lost again_

_But I'm not giving in_

_I will not bow_

_I will not break_

_I will shut the world away_

_I will not fall_

_I will not fade_

_I will take your breath away_

_FALL!_

I played the same notes from the opening again and by now people were loving it.

_Watch the end through dying eyes_

_Now the dark is taking over_

_Show me where forever dies_

_Take the fall and run to heaven_

_All is lost again_

_But I'm not giving in_

_I will not bow_

_I will not break_

_I will shut the world away_

_I will not fall_

_I will not fade_

_I will take your breath away_

_And I'll survive, paranoid_

_I have lost the will to change_

_And I am not proud, cold-blooded fake_

_I will shut the world away_

I played the pre solo notes amazingly

_OPEN YOUR EYES!_

I then started playing the solo perfectly

_I will not bow_

_I will not break_

_I will shut the world away_

_I will not fall_

_I will not fade_

_I will take your breath away_

_And I'll survive, paranoid_

_I have lost the will to change_

_And I am not proud, cold-blooded fake_

_I will shut the world away_

_FALL!_

I played the closing notes and the crowd was going nuts. I went over to Karl and brofisted him. We waited for the announcer to announce the winner. He finally got on stage after counting the votes and said "The winner of the contest is... Michael Williams!"

"YES!" I celebrated. Then Anthony came up to me.

"congratulations man. I gotta say when I saw that you could play and sing I knew that you'd win." He said.

"Thanks Anthony, but you did pretty good too." I say congratulating his performance.

"Hey you go to Yasogami, right?" Anthony asked me. I nodded and he continued "AWESOME! I just convinced the teachers to let me start a rock and roll club at school, you should join when school's back in! What do ya say?"

"Are you kidding? That'd be awesome! Hell yeah I'm in!"

So me, Karl, and Anthony spent the rest of the day just hanging out. And as I predicted, Karl challenged me to a race. A race that ended in my victory.

* * *

**There's my newest OC, Anthony Jackson. He's the rocker of Mike's circle of friends outside of the Investigation Team, other than Mike himself. Hope you enjoyed this chapter. Review if ya did and in the next chapter we hang out with Marie again.**

**Next Time: The Pain of Remembering**


	22. Chapter 22

Chapter 22: The Pain of Remembering

**Only own OC**

**Remember when I wrote the long as hell disclaimer before I switched to this less annoying one? No? Me neither.**

**Today we help Marie again today.**

**On with the show!**

* * *

I got another call from Marie again today. She said she wanted me to help her with her memories again. So I got dressed and drove to the flood plain again. As I rode to the flood plain I hoped and prayed that things would go better this time. I finally made it to the flood plain and sarcastically said to Marie "Look! I'm on time this time!" She forced a laugh before pulling out her comb.

"I don't get this... What am I supposed to do? The lady at the store said this comb was something special." She repeated Ms. Tatsumi's words from the day before yesterday.

"She said she never saw anything like it." I also repeat her words.

Marie nodded and said "Yeah, she said that. She also said it's really old. What did she say? Moozium? Galarry? Would there be combs there? That doesn't make sense. What are they going to use them for?" She asked.

I laughed again at her mispronunciation of museum and gallery. I answered her question and said "They're probably antiques."

She looked at me with a confused expression and said "An-what? You mean, old and dirty things? Oh... But maybe it is. Just like those, this comb has no point. Do you know anyone who knows about stuff like that?"

Once again I thought if I did in fact know someone who could help us in this situation. "Old Man Daidara knows a lot about antiques and all that crap. Maybe he can help us." I answer. Daidara was always going on and on about how much of an artist he is whenever I get a new pair of swords. He was a great guy but he tends to ramble about how much of an artist he is and it gets a little annoying.

"So there's someone who might know? Huh... This town has a ton of wierd people here." Marie pointed out.

I pointed to myself in a stupid fashion and said "But none are as weird as me." This time Marie didn't need to force herself to laugh.

"Well, let's go. Maybe we'll find something out." She said after she was done laughing. We got on my bike and headed to Daidara's store. Hopefully he could shed some light on our situation.

When we got there we looked around at the weapons and Marie asked me the question I had been waiting for "They sell these? Who would buy them?"

"Um... I do. And I know six others who do too."

"Yuki, wait for me! All this stuff is so h-heavy... Bearglh!" I heard a familiar voice say. 'Oh god, please don't come in here, please don't come in here, please don't-' I was cut off with Teddie and Yukiko coming in there.

"I knew it. Good day, Michael, Marie." Yukiko greeted us. I said hello on the outside but inside I was cussing my brains out.

"Huhhhh!? Mikey! Emmy!" Teddie shouted.

"Mikey?"

"Emmy?"

We both asked each other about the nicknames Teddie gave us. We looked away as a way to tell each other to forget it.

"Ooooh! Looks like I've stumbled across a big scoop... Well? Welllll?" Tedie pestered.

"What about you and Yukiko?" I ask now pestering the pest.

"Oh, no! What should I do? They're on to us Yuki!" Teddie shouted causing me and Marie to sweatdrop.

"I'm buying supplies for the inn." Yukiko started.

Before she continued I interupted her and said "So you made Teddie your personal pack mule? Nice."

"Wha... Yuki totally blew me off. It's all piled up next to the store. I can't carry a thing." Teddie said. Didn't surprise me, Teddie was a scrawny little bastard. It was a mystery to me how he could carry his own body weight.

"Who is this?" Marie asked. Teddie looked a little sad at what Marie had asked.

"How cruel! Emmy have you already forgotten about little Teddie!? After all the heavy petting you gave my fur." It then hit me that Marie had clearly only seen Teddie when he wore his bear costume when he was working at Junes as their personal mascot.

It then seemed to come back to Marie "Teddie? Oh... Kindness and fur." I didn't even what to know what the fuck she was talking about or what Teddie said to her when they met.

"Correct! That's my Emmy!" Teddie said as I pinch the bridge of my nose. "This is love! This has to be the power of love!"

"Yeah, it's not." Marie rejected Teddie.

"If remembering someone's name means love, than everyone is bisexual." I remark.

"What are you two doing here? Oh... Shopping I guess?" Yukiko asked.

"We're kinda doing some research." I answer.

"I see. Uh... here?" Yukiko asked. Marie somehow thought it was a good idea to ask Yukiko and Teddie if they knew anything about the comb. Sadly and as I expected, they did not. We finally decided to ask Daidara if he knew anything about the comb. Teddie thought it would be wise to ask the intimidating blacksmith in a violent manner if he knew anything. Like I said, he was intimidating. That being said Teddie ducked behind Marie and probably shit himself at how intimidating Daidara was.

When Marie showed him the comb he was about to blow us off, until he looked closely at the comb. "This here's a beaut. Good craftsmanship. Pretty old, too... And yet, it doesn't show much wear. It's perfect... almost too perfect. Where'd you get this?" He asked Marie. I was frankly surprised at how excited he was getting over a comb made out of bamboo. We asked him if he could tell us anything about it. But sadly he couldn't tell us either. However what he did know about it was strange. He said it was similar to a rare bamboo but it wasn't. He said it almost seemed like it came from another world. Teddie was stupid enough to ask what world it was from like Daidara was an astronomer or something.

"I don't understa-" Marie was cut off mid sentence by a massive headache.

"Marie! Are you okay!?" I asked panicking.

"I'm... un-all right. My head... It hurts." She answered in a pained tone. Daidara rushed off to find a first aid kit. Yukiko and Teddie went to get some medicine from a neighbor. "Ugh..." Marie said in pain. The pain eventually subsided and said "What is this? What the heck? I don't get it. This is bugging me! Something pops up... then just disappears! Just when I had it!"

"Easy Marie. Calm down." I say trying to calm her down. I only got her more pissed.

"I know! I know, but... It makes me angry... I still can't remember anything!" She was really shaken up about this. I guess I can't blame her. I felt really sorry for her. "I'm going home. My head still hurts." She walked out of the store and went back to the Velvet Room. Before I went home I decided to buy some new swords. I may not be able to use them in a fight anymore, but I've kinda taken to collecting them as a hobby. Is that normal?

I went back to the inn and went to bed. I had decided that I would check up on Marie tomorrow to see if she was alright.

* * *

**Shortest chapter ever. But I'm in a real rush to get the beach part because I have something special planned. Anyway, next chapter we check on Marie.**

**Next Time: Marie's Anger**


	23. Chapter 23

Chapter 23: How I Feel

**OC is mine**

**I changed the title of this chapter because if I did it the way that I intended this chapter would probably be only a few hundred words. So I mixed that idea with the idea I had after that. And I know that many of you are gonna love this chapter cause it's the moment many of you have been waiting for.**

**On with the show!**

* * *

This time I called Marie. I told her to meet me at the usual spot, the flood plain. When she got there she was quiet and distant until she said "Hey, I wanna see a dolphin. Bring out a dolphin. I'm gonna count to three. By the time I get there, I'd better see a dolphin. You got it?" I could tell she was still pretty pissed about yesterday. "One... Two... Three. Hey. Where's my dolphin? Helloooooo? ...This sucks."

I walked closer to her and asked "Are you okay? Does your head still hurt?"

"No, it doesn't. My head doesn't hurt as long as I don't think too much. It doesn't matter anymore. I stopped trying to remember. There's no point in trying to look for any answers, and in the end I couldn't figure anything out anyway." She revealed. I couldn't believe that she was giving up after all this.

"So you're just gonna give up!?" I ask in an angry tone. I didn't mean to, I just felt like if I let her give up I'd be breaking my promise.

"What can I do about it!? I can't remember... I can't remember anything! Thinking makes my head hurt, and even if something comes up, it vanishes the next instant! I hate this! Stupid! Jerk!" After she said that her head seemed to be hurting like it did yesterday.

"Are you okay!?" I ask.

"Just leave me alone! I hate this... My head hurts... All I want to do is just remember!" The pain eventually passed and she continued "Forget it... I don't need memories. I'm better off without them..."

She left and I felt like I just broke my promise by letting her give up like that. I didn't know what I was gonna do now. I decided to go home for the day. Maybe tomorrow she'd calm down.

* * *

**The next day**

I was driving through the shopping district. Anthony wanted to jam for a while so my guitar was strapped to my back. Marie had caught my eye so I hit the brakes and decided to see if she calmed down a bit. "Hey." I say nervous as to how she would react.

"Oh, hey..." She looked sadder than yesterday. "About that last time... Sorry... I want to talk with you alone." I nodded and had her get on the back of my bike and had her strap on my guitar so it didn't bother her on the ride to the hill overlooking the town. ride only sound that at there was, was the sound of the engine.

We finally got to the hill. When we go to the top Marie finally spoke up "I'm actually scared that I can't remember anything. Everything about me is borrowed. Everything... is just on loan from that room. If I return what I borrowed, I won't have anything left... The name Marie, this body, this voice... They'll all fade away. I feel like that's what'll happen to me. So I thought... If only I could at least remember something. But... I couldn't figure out anything. It's really scary..." the way she was talking was almost making me cry. She turned around. I walked closer as she said "Maybe I don't have any real memories to find..." She looked up and noticed the amazing view of the town from the top of the hill. "It's beautiful..."

**BGM: Sad Song from Yu Yu Hakusho (look it up, it's a great song for this moment)**

"Yeah, it is." I say with a smile. The view was breathtaking. You could see everything in Inaba from the top of the hill. As I looked down at the small town I begin reminiscing about what's occurred since I got to town. My friends, the murders, almost dying multiple times, and the best thing of all was meeting Marie. If it wasn't for all of these events I'd have been nothing but an angry, lonely, irritating teenager. Thanks to my friends I'm only angry and irritating.

"I still can't believe you decided to help me with my memories. When we first met, I never would have thought you'd do something like that." Marie said.

"You remember." I say with a triumphant smile.

"Of course I remember, you stupidjerkfacetwer-" She then realized why I was smiling like I was. "I remember... It's a memory. A memory of you and me." I nodded and she looked to the sky. She looked back at me and said "Yeah... I remember. Haha, I feel stupid now... It's feels... incredible." She closed her eyes and started reminiscing about the memories that she made with me. She opened her eyes and said "Hey, can we make more? More memories..."

"That's up to you." I say mockingly.

"Jerk... Make them with me. Please, I want to make them with you..." She said with a small blush on her face. I nodded as excepted her offer to make more memories with her. "I don't have to hurry, huh? Even if I don't have memories, I can make more. Haha, thank you... I'm sorry, it's just that I'm happy." There was the Marie I love. The Marie who keeps a smile and us happy. "Still, you really are a wired person. You're so busy, and yet you still take time to take care of me. Why do you do that?" She asked me. I could tell that now was the perfect time to tell her. "Why?" She asked again.

"The reason I take time out of my "busy schedule" to hang out with you is because..." It took every fiber of my being not to chicken out. "I do it because... I.. I love you." I finally said it. I finally told Marie that I loved her. Marie went from being happy as hell to depressed as fuck. Not the reaction I was expecting.

"That's a lie. I won't believe just words." She doubted. I moved closer and held her close. I could feel her heart rate increase when I hugged her. "Don't scare me like that, jerk. I hate that part of you. I really hate it. But you hug me all the time. It doesn't prove anything."

"I'm hugging you do I can do this." I tilted my head down and connected my lips to hers. The blush on her face grew deeper. Mine did too. She was shocked and tensed up at first, but after about three seconds she relaxed and started kissing me back. As I was about to pull away she pulled me back and made the kiss go on longer than I intended. This time she slid her tongue in and deepened the kiss. This was the best kiss I ever had. It was the first kiss I ever head, but goddamn it was great. It seemed like she never wanted to stop kissing me. But sadly all good things must come to an end. What's sadder is the best things in life have to end as well. We finally pulled away from each other and she laid her head on my chest whil I held her as close as possible and stroked her hair. Apparently her hat fell off during the kiss.

"I gain another memory." She said with her eyes closed. "Hey, stay like this for a little while longer. So that... I won't forget. It's okay right?"

I nodded, kissed the top of her head, and said "I'm not letting go anytime soon." She looked up at me and kissed my lips again.

"I love you, Michael."

"I love you too, Marie."

**BGM END**

Today marked the best day of my life. She lit up my world when she returned my feelings. pushed each other for about five minutes before I let go. "Hey, I got something for ya." I told her. I let go and grabbed my guitar. "Here's another new memory." I started strumming the opening to No Matter What (acoustic) by Papa Roach. Then I started singing.

_Cause I need you right here, by my side_

_Cause You're everything I'm not, in my life_

_We're indestructible, we are untouchable_

_Nothing can take us down tonight_

_You are so beautiful, it should be criminal_

_You should be mine_

_And if we make it out alive_

_I'll promise you that we will never die_

_No mater what, I got your back_

_I'll take a bullet for you if it comes to that_

_I swear to God, we'll be okay_

_So believe me when I say, you're the one_

_They'll never forgive us for the things we've done_

_No way to justify, we got no alibi_

_We are alive, we're on the run_

_Just put your hands in mine_

_It shouldn't be a crime, what have we done_

_And we will make it through the night_

_I promise you this love will never die_

_No matter what, I got your back_

_I'll take a bullet for you if it comes to that_

_I swear to God, we'll be okay_

_But if we die, before we wake_

_I'll promise you forever and my soul today_

_No matter what we'll be okay_

_Everybody said that we would never last_

_If they could see us now I bet they'd take it back_

_It doesn't matter what we do or what we say_

_'Cause nothing matters anyway_

__I started the solo and I looked at Marie, and she had the biggest smile I had ever seen on her face. She was loving it!

_No matter what, I got your back_

_I'll take a bullet for you if it comes to that_

_I swear to God, we'll be okay_

_But if we die, before we wake_

_I'll promise you forever and my soul today_

_No matter what, we'll be okay_

When I finished the song a put my guitar back in its case, when I turned back around Marie jumped me and I landed on the ground with her on top of me. I looked at her for a few seconds before she started kissing me again. I put my arms around her and kissed back. We stayed in that position for a few more minutes before I got up carried her back to my bike bridal style.

After I dropped her off at the Velvet Room I went back to the inn. I pretty much divebombed into bed with my hands behind my head and my left leg on top of my right. I had the biggest smile ever on my face. "I LOVE MY FUCKED UP LIFE!"

* * *

**Yeah! They're finally together. What'd you guys think. Leave me a review and tell me. In the next chapter we hang out with Yu.**

**Next Time: My Friends Are Assholes**


	24. Chapter 24

Chapter 24: My Friends Are Assholes

**Only own my OC**

**If you didn't read the last chapter, Marie and Michael's relationship kicked off. Today we hang out with Yu and the others.**

**On with the show!**

* * *

I could barely sleep last night. I mean I finally told Marie that I loved her, and she returned my feelings. On top of that, I got my first kiss! I literally probably only got an hour of sleep. The next day I was still pretty energized from yesterday. I got a call from Yu as soon as I turned on my TV. "Yo, Narukami! What's up man?" I ask in the happiest tone ever.

"Whoa, you sound pretty happy today. What's up with that?" He asked. I was so ready to rub my new relationship Marie in his face. But then I realized that he'd tell the others and they, mainly Youske, would give me shit and tease me. Which I didn't need right now.

"Oh it's nothing. I just slept good. So why're you calling me so early?" I asked. Thankfully he saw through my lie and answered my question.

"I was wondering if you wanted to hang out today." I asked him what he had in mind. "How about a hot spring?" He asked. I wasn't totally against it. I decided what the hell, I'll hang out with Yu at the hot spring for a while. He told me to meet him there in an hour.

When I got there Yu was already inside. I got myself situated and joined him. "So why we're you really so happy this morning?" 'Aw fuck!' I think to myself. Apparently Yu was a talking lie detector.

"Nothing gets past you does it?" I ask. He nodded and repeated his question. "Okay, but you tell no one! Not even the others, especially Youske!" I demand. I really didn't want the others knowing about Marie and I yet. Knowing them Youske would give me shit and bust my balls for some random reason, Chie and Yukiko would give me tips on how to treat a girl, Kanji would probably just congratulate me or something along those lines, Teddie would bitch and moan about the whole thing, finally Rise would probably try to kill Marie. Yu nodded and I told him about everything that happened yesterday.

"YES! I WIN!" He shouted after I finished briefing.

"What?" I ask with a weird expression.

"Oh Youske and I made a bet that you and Marie would hook up before I left." He revealed. How the fuck did Youske know I liked...

"YOU TOLD YOUSKE ABOUT MY FEELINGS TOWARDS MARIE!?" I shout pissed. There was more steam coming out of my ears than there was from the actual hot springs.

"Whoops." He said nervously.

I sighed and said "Fuck it, I'm in way too good a mood to care. Plus you won't be getting your prize anyway." His expression became gloom. "Yeah. Sucks to be you." I say patting his back in an asshole manner.

"So how did she react?" He asked me.

"She didn't believe me at first, but after I grabbed her and kissed her, she did not want me to let go." I respond.

"Wait... So you just grabbed her and kissed her?" He asked confused.

I nodded and said in a braggy tone "Yep. Then we just held each other for a while, then I played her a song and she knocked me down and kissed me again."

"Well, congratulations, Mike. I'm happy for ya." Yu said patting my back. He then decided to change the subject. "So what are your plans for the future?" He asked. That was a shocker. He just came up and asked me what I have in mind for my future. Though it was a really good question.

"The future? Well..." I paused and started thinking, because I didn't even know what I was gonna do now. "I don't know. I guess I'll stay here for a while."

"Really? What about your family? Won't they miss you?" He asked. He did have a point. I was originally supposed to leave about a week after Yu left, but now I felt like this place was my home.

"What about them?" I say in an angry tone. "They probably already forgot that I'm gone. I did everyone in my family, and myself, a favor by leaving."

Yu and I sat in silence for a while before he said "Do you remember what I said about your family needing someone like you to keep them together?"

"Yeah, I remember. I've thought about it a few times, but..." I paused and took a deep breath before I continued "Even if I do go back what am I supposed to do? Just walk through the door and say "Hey, everyone! Sorry I kinda ran away, but you guys are crazy and need me to keep us from killing each other"? I don't think so. Now can we just stop talking about it?"

We sat in silence a little longer before we decided to leave. It was the most awkward six minutes I had ever experienced with anyone.

When we went our separate ways, I noticed that there was plenty of daylight left. I decided to go to Junes to see if there was anyone there. I prayed that Youske wouldn't be there.

When I got there, there was no sign of Youske. But I did see Teddie handing out balloons to the kids. "Yo, Ted!" I call out to him. He noticed me and charged towards me. "JESUS FUCKING CHRIST!" I had no fucking clue that he was the Flash's cousin or some shit.

"Hey, Mikey! How's life?" He asked in a happy tone.

"Life is fucking great Ted. Life is FUCKUNG great!" I say. I then realised, the mistake that I made.

"Really? Why's that?" He asked.

I was thinking out a strategy to get out of this mess, but I couldn't come up with anything. So I started talking hoping the solution would just come out, "W-Well, if you must ask... I-I uhhh... I... I hooked up with Marie yesterday."

"YOU DID WHAT!?" He shouted. 'DAMMIT! DAMMIT! DAMMIT! DAMMIT!' I shouted over and over in my head. Was I really that happy about being with Marie that my subconscious mind HAD to tell ALL MY FRIENDS WITHOUT MY CONSENT!? I guess so.

"SHHHH! Quiet down, you stupid bear!" I whisper loudly to get my point across. I put my hand over his mouth and said "Now you listen to me you little fuzzy bastard, you tell NO ONE, especially Youske and Rise! If you do I will force your human body out of that suit and shove the empty suit UP YOUR ASS! Am I clear!?" He nodded yes while sweating.

"So what happened?" He asked. He was taking this better than I thought. I guess Teddie had the personality of a player and didn't give a shit as long as he got into some girls pants. I filled him in on the whole event that occurred the other day and he said in a weird tone "Our little white-haired knight is growing up." I backed away because that was the weirdest thing that had ever come out of Ted's mouth. Instead of saying goodbye I just bolted out of there. As I approached the exit, I ran into Youske. 'Okay mouth, don't betray me now.'

"Hey, Mike. Where are you off to in such a hurry?" He asked me.

"I'm off to see my girlfriend." I said out loud while on the inside I was shouting. 'No...'

"Really!? Who!? Come on man spill the beans! Do I know her!? Come on tell me!" He begged as I continued saying in my head 'No, no, no...'

"Marie." I say nonchalantly out loud. 'NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO! YOU MOTHER FUCKER! YOU'RE MY MOUTH, YOU'RE NOT SUPPOSED TO BE AN ASSHOLE TO ME!'

"WHAT!?" Youske shouted. By now people were looking our direction.

I grabbed Youske by the collar and whispered into his ear "If you give me any kind of shit about this at ANY time in your life, I will shove those headphones of yours and jam them down your throat just so you can shit them out later. Got it!?" He gave me the same response as Teddie. I then proceeded to say "And if you tell anyone, I'll rip off your lips. You comprende?" Same response. I decided to just go home and avoid any of my friends for the rest of the day. Or week. Or forever.

I made one quick stop to Aiya's because I hadn't eaten anything today. When I got out of the restraunt I took a quick stretch and when I stopped my eyes were covered by two hands. "Guess who." The voice behind me said. I smiled because I knew who it was as soon as those hands covered my eyes. But I decided to be an ass.

"Is it... Rise?"

"No."

"Chie?"

"No."

"Yukiko?"

"No." By now she was getting pissed. I tried to contain my laughter. One more push was all I needed.

"Is that you Margaret?" I ask mocking a serious tone.

"No you blockheadedstupididiot! It's me, Marie!" Marie shouted. I finally let out my laughter. "How could you think I was Margaret!?" She yelled. I laughed even harder.

"Calm down, Marie. I was just playing with ya." I said as my laughter subsided. "Whew, man. That was funny."

"You're such a jerk sometimes." Marie said.

"But you love this jerk, remember?" I say nudging her shoulder.

"Yeah. You're my stupid, dumb, idiotic, dense in head-"

I cut her off and said "Can we stop with the compliments and get to the end please?"

"In short, you're my boyfriend, and I love you." Marie said in a sweet tone. I was still getting used to Marie calling me her boyfriend and saying she loved me. The only ones I had ever said they loved me was my family before my mom died and they all became crazier than the Joker.

"I love you too." I said kissing her cheek. "So what are you doing here?" I ask her.

"The Nose sent me out on an errand. I was just heading back. What about you?"

"I was just on my way home. I need to stay away from everyone for awhile." I said in a depressing tone because I had remembered how bad I fucked up with everyone today. I was still lecturing my subconscious mind for taking control of my mouth. I didn't really give a shot about Teddie, but why did it make me tell Youske when I said over and over he'd give me shit. I was just thankful that Rise still didn't know. And I don't plan on telling her until I die.

"Well... I kinda, sorta... told some of the guys about us." I explained.

"Then why do you need to stay away from them?" She took it better than I thought. I expected her to be a little pissed. I mean since she knew my friends I figured she'd want to keep us between... well us. Then again, she was my first girlfriend and I still didn't know how some of this shit works. I pretty much just told her that. "Now that you tell me... Yeah, you messed up."

"Fucked up. Big difference." I explain.

"Anyway, I need to get back. I'll see you later." She gave me a quick peck on the lips and left. I got on my bike and headed back to the inn.

As soon as I walked into the inn Yukiko and Chie, who had apparently been here, ambushed me. "Why didn't you tell us that you were dating Marie!?" They asked in unison.

"How in the name of fuck did you two find out!?" I ask pissed. It had to be either Youske or Teddie because I knew the Narukami was not that stupid.

"That's none of your business. The point is you didn't tell us so we could give you some tips. First what you need to do is-" Chie started before I cut her off.

"Yeah! Great advice, Chie! Well, gotta go. See ya!" I bolted up the stairs and got in my room. Once I closed the door my phone started ringing. "Hello?" I say in a scared voice because I read the caller ID.

"HOW COULD YOU BE DATING MARIE!?" It was Rise. And she was PISSED. I could literally feel the hatred emitting from her voice, and the pain in my knuckles once I find out who told the girls and I kill them with my bare hands.

"Who told you?" I ask in the same tone as when I answered.

"Teddie! Now answer me how could y-" I ended the call and took out the battery so she wouldn't call again and I didn't even want to risk Kanji calling me about this.

"I'm gonna skin that bear and use him as a rug."

* * *

**Not my best chapter I know. But don't worry, next chapter is the beach. Hope you enjoyed this shitty chapter. Bye bye!**

**Next Time: I Hate the Beach**


	25. Chapter 25

Chapter 25: The Festival and the Beach

**Only own my OC**

**Okay, I just remembered that I didn't put in the part when everyone made plans to go to the beach in Chapter 18. But don't worry I fixed it. Now I don't feel like such an idiot. And I changed the title because I also remembered that the festival is first, THEN the beach. Sorry chapters have been a little hectic lately, but with finals I can barely remember what school I go to. But it's almost summer break and soon I'll be back on track. Now then...**

**On with the show!**

I got a call from Yu this morning reminding me that today was the day of the Summer Festival. I put on my usual get-up and headed to the shrine.

When I got there the guys were all waiting for me. When we passed through the shrine gates, there was hardly anyone here, which was weird. You'd think more people would be at a festival like this, but there were only a few more than a dozen people plus our group. "Funny, I remember this festival being a lot more crowded... Is it because of the murders?" Youske asked curiously.

"I think so. The killer may be caught but people are still pretty spooked." I say.

"Yeah, there ain't many people this year. Well, I guess you can't blame people for being scared. Haven't seen the reporters around, either. They sure are good at stirring shit up then disappearing." Kanji pointed out. And he was right. Since we caught Mitsuo, the press have hardly shown up around town anymore. Which was just great. "Well, it ain't so bad to have thin crowds. What IS important right now is that we go get some ikayaki."

"Ooh, I wanna get some too! Kanji what's ikayaki?" Teddie asked. At least I wasn't the only one who didn't know what that was. Sounded good though.

We got some food for ourselves while we waited for the girls. They were taking longer than we thought. "Man, they're late... Why were they meeting up at Yukiko's house in the first place?" Youske asked.

"They told me they had to get dressed, but I didn't think it'd take them this long." I explain. Since I'm staying at the Amagi Inn the girls told me that they'd meet us here later, but they were a half hour late.

"They'll show up sooner or-"

"Whoa, isn't that them?" Teddie said cutting Kanji off.

It was the girls and they brought Nanako along, yay. They all wore their yukata's. Rise wore a red one, Yukiko wore a blue one, Chie wore a white one, and Nanako wore a pink one.

"Sorry we took so long." Chie apologized.

"It took us some time to get dressed." Yukiko explained. It all made sense now. They had no idea what they were doing.

"You have to wrap towels inside, so they're not as breezy as everyone says." Rise imparted that usless info to the guys and I.

"It's kinda hard to walk." Nanako said.

"I think you look cute in it." Yu said while I nod in agreement, causing Nanako to blush.

"Nanako, you look so cute! I'm head over heels for you!" Teddie said.

"Back off pedo bear she's only nine." I scold him. I couldn't believe he was trying to hit on Nanako. Needless to say, Nanako thanked him for the um... compliment.

"How do we look, Michael? Does the sight make your heart skip a beat?" Rise asked. 'Oh come on! You know I'm dating Marie why do you feel the need to still hit on me!?'

"Yeah, you girls look great." I say. Thank god I was outta that mess.

Youske turned to Kanji, who was facing away from the girls the entire time, and said "Kanji? What are you looking away for? Don't tell me you're ashamed to look! What are you a monk?"

"Th-That ain't it!" Kanji denied in a stutter. Dojima had come to pick up Nanako. They left and Teddie stupidly suggested that we pair off. And by we, he men him and the girls. Didn't matter to me since I was with Marie. The guys on the other hand weren't taking it so well. But they cheered up a bit when they saw how badly was fucking up. After that we all spread out to have some fun. I ran into Anthony and Karl at the festival. They had become quick friends. Being the way Karl is he wanted a race. This time he won, but in the overall competition, I was still winning by one. So, HA! I left the festival a little later nad went back home.

When I walked through my door I had realised that I must have a good amount of cash. I laid out all the money from my part-time jobs and by defeating Shadows over the past few months, and saw that I almost had enough to get my own apartment. Which was totally kick ass! I went to sleep with that on my mind.

* * *

**The next day**

The next day I was told that the festival was still going on, but I kinda had a headache so I just stayed in my room all day.

* * *

**The next day**

My headache was gone the next day. I got a call from Youske when I woke up. "Youske, it's barely past dawn. What is it?" I say in a tired voice.

"Sorry, but I just ask if you were free tomorrow." He explained.

"I'm not busy. Why?"

"I thought that if everyone was free tomorrow we could finally hit the beach! The girls got their licenses and their motorcycles so we can totally do it now! What do ya say?" He asked in an excited yet curious tone.

"Sure, I'm up for it. I'll see you and the others tomorrow." I hung up the phone and laid down on my bed again, ready to catch some more Z's. Then I shot up out of my head and got an idea. I decided to get my lazy ass out of bed and see if Marie wanted to go. Hopefully she would, cause it'd be fucking great if I could see her in a swimsuit. I got my keys and headed to the Velvet Room entrance in the shopping district.

Marie was already standing outside the entrance door. She saw me coming and said "Why're you in such a rush?"

"I have something I wanna ask you." I tell her.

"What?"

"My friends and I are heading to the beach tomorrow. I thought that you'd might wanna come. You in?" I ask with a stupid grin.

"Uhh... Sure, it sounds like fun. Plus we can spend some time together." She said with a little blush.

"Alright! Now that you've decided to come along, we need to get you a swimsuit." I say with an unnoticable bit of excitement in my voice. My plan was coming together.

...

Don't look at me like that! I just wanna see her in a swimsuit! Don't tell me you've never thought of it!

"No worries, I already have one. I thought I'd one day need it so I got it at Junes a while ago." She explained. 'YES!'

"Awesome, less trouble for us. You'll just ride behind me and I'll drive us to the beach. I gotta go get ready so I'll see ya tomorrow." I say giving her a quick kiss on the lips and heading back to the Amagi Inn to prepare.

* * *

**The next day**

I put on my usual attire and decided to leave my jacket at home. I grabbed my sling pack, that had my suit, towel, and tank top in it, and my keys and went to pick up Marie.

When I got there she was wearing her usual get-up as well. I handed my spare helmet and we headed out to meet the others outside of town. When we got there the first thing I noticed was Kanji on his bike and Teddie wearing rollarskates. Yukiko was right, it was kinda funny to see him like that.

"There you are what took you so long?" Youske asked anxious to get going.

"Sorry had to her up." I said pointing to Marie behind me.

"Oh, Marie's coming too? Great, the more the merrier." Chie said.

"Well what are we waiting for? Come on people we're burning daylight!" I say just as ready to go as Youske.

* * *

**Time skip: A few hours later**

"Chie! Is the beach really this way? We've been on the road for a while." Rise complained. She was right too. We could have been at the beach a long time ago if Chie had listened to me and let us take the shortcut that was just a few miles outside of town. But no, she wanted to show us her awful GPS skills.

"I'm positive! Can't you smell the ocean?" She asked. Since when do oceans smell.

"What smell?" Rise repeated my thought before I did.

"You can definitely trust her on this Rise. She's got the senses of a beast, remember?" Youske assured the former idol.

"What?" Chie asked pissed at Youske calling her a beast. "Hey, what are you saying!?"

"Hey, I was complimenting you!" Youske hopelessly defended himself.

"That's not a compliment, you idiot! What kind of girl wants to be compared to a big furry animal, huh!?" They went on and on as I realized how far behind the motorless morons were.

"Come on, fellas! Put some muscle into it!" I mock them.

"Dude, give me a break." Kanji said out of breath. But Ted was doing a lot worse than him. For what reason would Teddie wear his bear suit on a hot day like this. Sure I was wearing jeans but I do that all the time so I'm used to it. "Have you seen the map!? This is crazy!"

Teddie reached out in hopes of grabbing a hold of something and said "Wait... for me... I'm... done for." He then fell over.

"Should we help them?" Marie asked.

"Nah. Kanji's a tough guy and Ted's just being a drama bear. Plus what could we do? I got no space for two more passengers." I explain.

"Look the ocean!" I hear Rise say. We all admired the ocean, because it was fucking gorgeous. This place made the beach I went to as a kid look like a polluted kiddy pool.

I looked at my mirror and saw Kanji and Teddie were going balls to the motherfucking wall. They somehow got the biggest burst of stamina I had ever seen. They quickly flew by us and the others. "What the fuck!?" I shout.

"No one's gonna beat me to the water!" Chie said in a competitive tone.

"Please speed is what me and this bad boy's all about!" I also say competitively. I was made for racing and I wasn't gonna lose this one. No fucking way. No fucking how. Though Chie did almost beat me, thank God for that turtle.

I found a place to get changed and put on what I wore at the school campout when we went "swimming". Then I gave Marie a chance to change. When she was finished... Holy fucking shit, she looked hot! She wore a bright blue two piece, and goddamn did it look good on her! It perfectly showed off her perfect figure. Perfect legs, perfect ass, perfect breasts, perfect everything! I was so much in shock I didn't even realize my nose was bleeding. "I take it you like what you see?" She asked pointing to my bloody nose.

"Huh? Oh fuck!" I realised my nose was bleeding and grabbed some water out of my bag and dumped it all over my face. Over dramatic, yes. Effective, yes. Stupid, eh only a little. Once I shook my head to mess up my hair a bit, because I look awful with my wet hair back, I said "Sorry. You look great, babe."

She smiled and came up to put her arms around my neck and said "You don't look so bad yourself." We kissed for a bit before we went to join the others. We got there the same time Kanji arrived. I was kinda curious as to what a badass like him would wear.

When he came out, well... he wore a speedo. "Dude, what is that!?" Youske shouted.

"It's the thing that's haunt my nightmares for many years to come." I mutter in horror.

"What's what?" Kanji asked like he was NOT wearing a speedo.

"Your swimsuit! What else would I mean!?" Youske asked.

"It's your basic black." Did Kanji not know what was happening? We were horrified at the fact that he was wearing a speedo!

"I'm not talking about the color! I mean... I mean... the whole thing!" Youske explained.

"You're the only one saying that stuff like that!" Kanji argued.

"Well in that case... *ahem*. AHHHHHHHHH! MY EYES ARE FUCKING BLEEDING! WHY,KANJI!? WHY!? WHY ARE YOU MAKING US SUFFER LIKE THIS!? WHY CAN'T YOU WEAR NORMAL BOARD SHORTS LIKE A NORMAL DUDE!?"

"Okay, Mike, you made your point." Kanji said in defeat. Frankly I don't think I did make my point. But whatever. We then decided to have some fun in the water. Youske pushed Rise in her inner tube, Teddie just spun around in his tube, Yu held Yukiko's hands and had her float, Chie and Kanji were racing the fastest swim race I have ever seen, and Marie and I just had a good old splash fight. Yu, Youske, and I decided to take a break for a while.

"Found a vending machine. I'll go buy some drinks. You guys want anything?" Youske asked. Before we could answer we heard something.

"Eek!" We heard Yukiko scream.

"The hell?" I ask.

"My string's getting undone!" Rise said causing Yu and Youske to turn around.

"Come on guys have a little shame, like me and-"

"Mine is too!" I heard Marie shout causing me to turn around. Guess I was no better.

"Hey! Teddie! Watch the hands, pal!" Chie shouted. 'Now I know who to kill for trying to expose my girlfriend.'

"Aww, don't be so stingy! I think we're due for a "wardrobe malfunction"." Teddie defended.

"What in the world are they doing?" Youske asked.

"Apparently, Ted's giving me another reason to kill him with his bear suit." I say pissed. If Teddie thought he was gonna get away with trying to expose Marie, he was dead wrong. Emphasis on dead.

"Whoaaaaaaa!" We heard Kanji shout. He grabbed Teddie and carried hm back to shore. "Got you, you bastard!" He shouted at his prisoner.

"Busted." Teddie said disappointed that Kanji ruined his fun.

"Hey, guys! This stupid bear was..." He said walking towards us. That's when I saw "IT". We all saw "IT".

"H-Hey, hey, HEY! Not cool!" Youske shouted as we turned away from "IT".

"You guys listenin'?" Kanji asked.

"Wait. Hold it, time out!" Youske shouted. "Uh... L-Look down." He ordered.

"Down?" Kanji asked.

"Yes! Down! As in, south of the border!" I explain. That's when him and Teddie saw "IT". What is "IT" you ask? Well...

"Gyaaaaaaaaaaah!"

"Holy shit, the wardrobe malfunction was mine!" "IT" was Kanji's dick. Yeah.

"What are you doing!? You need to cover up down there, dammit!" Youske shouted.

"I give up, I give up!" Teddie shouted.

"Hey, quit squirmin'! You run off and I'm toast!" Kanji explained.

"But if I don't run off, my dignity will be in ruins!" Teddie argued. We then heard the girls start talking about getting out of the water. Youske went off to find something for Kanji to cover up with. Leaving Yu and I with the naked wonder and his captive.

"You're a man. Let 'em dangle." Yu suggested Kanji to stay naked.

"Hell yeah! A man should... Nah that's pushing it. I'd be in some serious shit." Kanji denied.

"Maybe a seashell." I suggest.

"You're right! Maybe if I use this white seashell... Argh, no, that's too sexy!" Kanji rejected. Youske finally came back with... seaweed? He suggested that Kanji wrap himself up in that. When the girls started closing in on us, Kanji caved in and wrapped himself in the seaweed. But he looked like a Renaissance art model

"...What am I suppposed to say to this?" Chie asked as they walked over to us.

"We're... uh..." Youske stuttered.

"W-We're reenacting the Birth of Venus." I lie.

"Y-Yeah! I-I'm ready to be born, dammit!" Kanji went along with it.

That's when the girls ran away.

"Was this... the best idea?" Youske asked.

"Nope. It was the worst." I answer.

"Whatever else, it's givin' me an itch." Kanji said, grossing us out. That's when we realized that Kanji was wrapped in poison ivy. We also realized that Teddie might be dead cause he wasn't moving.

"Yeah... We fucked up. Big time." I say.

* * *

**Time skip: One hour later**

By now we found Kanji's suit washed up on the shore, and we tried to forget that awful experience. I decided that it was about time for me to have some alone time with Marie. "Hey, care to join me for a walk?" I ask offering her my hand.

"Sure." She said taking my hand. We walked on the beach for a while before we came across an isolated spot on the beach. There was literally no one where we were right now. We decided to just sit down and listen to the waves crash on top of each other. "This is nice." She said admiring the view and sound of the waves.

"Never gets old, the waves." I agreed.

"Hey can I ask you something?"

"'Sup?"

"Why are you wearing a shirt at the beach?" I was afraid she'd ask that. But I had to tell her sooner or later.

"You sure you wanna know?" I ask. She nodded. "Okay." I stood up and took of my shirt. Most of my upper body was covered in scars. I heard her gasp in horror.

"How did you get these?" She asked touching my scar riddled back.

"I got into a lot of fights at school after my mom died and... Some of my opponents didn't really fight fair. By that I mean they'd bring knives." I explained.

"You've had a hard life." She said in a sad tone.

"Not so bad anymore. I have you now." I turned around and wrapped my arms around her. She then wrapped her arms around me.

"I love you." She said in a sad but sweet tone.

"I love you too." I said in a reassuring tone. I didn't want her to worry about me more than I'm sure she already does.

She looked into my eyes for a while and pressed her lips against mine. She put one hand on the back of my head and the other on my shoulder, while I had my hands on her hips. Once she slid her tongue into my mouth, I started caressing her hips, causing her to moan a little in my mouth. I pulled away and started kissing her neck. I found her sweet spot and started sucking and biting on it. "Oh god, Michael. That feels so good." She said between moans. I courageously moved my hands from her hips to her perfect butt. She didn't stop me. In fact she pulled me closer. But we were interrupted by something else.

"Marie! Michael! Where are you two! Come on, it's time to go!" We heard Youske shout.

"Damn him." I say.

"Don't worry. We can finish another time." She said before kissing my lips one more time.

"I'm gonna hold you to that." I tease.

"Jerk." She said while playfully slapping my shoulder. We went back to the others and headed back to Inaba. I dropped Marie off at the Velvet Room, and headed home. I got in my bed after a quick shower and said "Damn you, Youske Hanamura."

* * *

**What did you guys think of that little moment between Marie and Michael? Too much or what? Let me know. And I've decided that I'm going to post a lemon. But it won't be for a while, so be patient and look forward to it. In the next chapter Michael spends some time with Nanako.**

**Next time: Summer Draws To A Close**


	26. Chapter 26

Chapter 26: Summer Draws To A Close

**Only own my OC**

**Today Michael spends some quality time with Nanako, so this chapter might be a little short.**

**On with the show!**

* * *

I regretfully woke up the next morning feeling like shit. Yesterday really took a lot out of me. What with seeing Kanji's speedo, his junk, and making out with Marie, I'm suprised I was able to wake up. I decided to just say home and rest. But my plans were interrupted by getting a phone call from Yu. "What is it Yu?" I ask in a pissed off and sleepy tone. Seriously why did all of my friends call me at the crack of dawn? They know I'm not a morning person.

"Sorry to call you so early. But I need you to do me a favor." He said. What could Yu possibly want, and how could I help.

"What is it?" I ask.

"I need you I help Nanako with her homework.

What the others? Why do you want me to do it?" I whine.

"Well I'm working at te hospital tonight, Youske and Teddie are working all day, Chie has family in town, Rise's grandma left her in charge of the tofu shop, Kanji was busy, and Yukiko has to help at the inn. You're the only one who wasn't busy." Yu explained. When he's right he's right.

"Okay. When do I need to come over?" I ask.

"Just be here by about seven." He said.

"Okay, I'll be there tonight." I agree. Who knows, maybe this'll be good for me. I've never had a chance to really talk with Nanako.

"Thanks, Michael! I owe ya one!" He thanked me. I hung up and rested as much as I could before I headed to Yu's tonight.

* * *

**Time skip: 12 hours later**

I got dressed and grabbed my keys and headed to Yu's place to help Nanako with her homework. I got on my bike and headed out.

I knocked on the front door. I was welcomed by the little girl herself. "Hi, Mr. Michael." She greeted. Felt weird being called mister.

"Come on, Nanako, I'm your friend. Just call me by my name." I tell her.

She nodded and said in a cheery tone "Okay, Mikey!

"Did Teddie tell you his nickname for me?" I ask. She nodded and I thought of more ways to kill Teddie. Him calling me that was enough, I didn't need another person calling me that. "Just checking. Well let's get started, shall we?" She nodded and we got started on her homework.

It didn't take that long considering she's in what first grade or second grade. It was pretty easy to know that 12 times five was sixty. But while I helped her with her homework I couldn't help but think of how strong she is. I mean this girl lost her mother at such a young age, I lost mine when I was thirteen and I was a crying like a baby. I could only imagine how this little girl felt at the time, or now for that mater. I wanted to talk to her about it but I didn't want to risk making her sad. After we finished her homework she asked me if I wanted a drink before I left. I just settled with regular water. "Thank you for helping me with my homework, Mikey." Nanako thanked me calling me THAT name again.

"No problem, Nanako. It was my pleasure." I say as she hands me a glass of water.

We sat in silence for a few minutes before she asked "Did you lose your mom too?" I was shocked to hear her ask that. I processed what she asked for a few seconds before I looked down and said yes. "I'm sorry." She apologized noticing my sadness.

"No it's fine. I just don't talk about it so much so I'm not used to someone bringing it up." I reassure her. "I was about thirteen. I may not have been that young but I still hated knowing she was gone." I say fighting back tears.

"I don't remember my mom very much but I still miss her." Nanako said.

"Well weather or not you remember, when you lose your mother you can't help but feel sad." I explain. "If you don't mind me asking... How do you feel now, I mean not having your mom?" I ask.

I thought I crossed the line and made a HUGE mistake, because after I asked she started crying. My thoughts changed when she ran towards my position a buried her face in my chest and cried her eyes out. "I miss my mom so much!" She said into my chest in between sobs and hics. I wrapped my arms around this poor little girl and rubbed the back of her head and patted her back in order to comfort her.

"Shhh. It's okay. It's okay. I know it hurts. Just let it all out." I say in a soothing tone. At this point I was crying a little too. After about three minutes or so she pulled away and started wiping her remaining tears. I put my hands on her shoulders and asked "Feel a little better?" She stared at me for a while on confusion for a while before she nodded. "Good. Remember it's okay to miss your mother. And it's okay to cry over her every now and then. It just shows that you love and miss her. Understand?"

"Yes. Thank you, Mikey." Nanako thanked.

"If you ever feel like talking about your mom, give me a call and I'd be happy to help you out." I say ruffling her hair. She nodded with an innocent smile on her face. With all that done I grabbed my keys and left. I saw Nanako wave goodbye as I left.

As I laid on my bed I said to myself "A little girl like that shouldn't have to live without a mother. Life without a mother, is hell."

* * *

**Sorry about the long update but things have been pretty hectic in my life, but now that school's out I can update again. Sorry if this chapter was a little rushed but I just wanted to get something up today. Don't worry I will never abandon a story I write I'm not gonna be one of those writers. Anyway next chapter (ironically) school's back in session.**

**Next time: Watermelon and Returning to Hell**


	27. Author's Note

**Author's Note: VERY IMPORTANT**

**Okay guys, I know it's been forever since I updated this story and I'm very sorry about that! I've been VERY busy with my other two stories and to be honest I kinda lost faith in this story since Vincent the vizard was the only person giving their input and I didn't have many followers and favorites. But then I remembered that I made a vow that I would NEVER abandon a story and I tend to keep that promise until I decide to stop writing stories.**

**Now onto what makes this important. I am going to be rewriting this story. I decided to do this because just about all my chapters were short and choppy ones that barely broke a thousand words, and it was only because this was my first story so I didn't know how to write, now that I've got two stories that require me to write at least 3,000 words every chapter I can start fresh with this one and make it better. **

**And besides when I started this story I was already, from the first chapter, fucking up with the dates and all that. I also made Marie WAY to OOC. That's mostly cause I can't get that good of a grasp on how she acts. So that's another thing I'm gonna fix.**

**So there ya have it, this story will be rewritten and I'll probably start once I post this. Since I'm sick and have the day off from school I have time. Hopefully this time I'll have more people giving their input, no offense vince I just need more than one person reviewing.**

**Again I hope you can all forgive me for taking so long, but fear not all is well, and I will never abandon a story. Temporary hiatus: yes. Abandon: Don't bet on it.**


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